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PROHIBITION 



A FALLACY, A FANATICISM, 



AND AN 



ABSURDITY. 



Contrary to the Constitution of the United States. 



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A t 



:he laws of creation, civilization, 'mm: sense ait ratioial -pboghess, 



J3ECAUSE 
Contrary to tlje Teachings of the 

BIBLE. 



JERSEYVILL-E, ILL. 
COMMERCIAL BOOK AND Jfffc PRINTING OFFICE. 

1890: 



PROHIBITION 



A FALLACY, A FANATICISM, 



AND AN 




W 




^\ 



y 



Contrary to the Constitution of the United States. 



THE LAWS OF CREATION, CIVILIZATION, COMMON SENSE AND RATIONAL PROGRESS, 

hr <f ■ 

BECAUSE 

■tu vv 

Contrary to the Teachings of the 

BIBLE. 



JERSEYVILLE, ILL*. 

COMMERCIAL BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE. 

1890. 



HVs 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by 

FRANCIS M. ENGLISH, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



/ 



PREFACE, 



In offering this small volume for the eye of all 
that read for the purpose of being benefitted, and 
satisfied in the acquisition of information of value, 
our subject and its analysis will interest, satisfy and 
benefit every one capable of deducing from the pre- 
mises conclusions demonstrated by sound reasoning 
from undisputed facts. This book supplies a 
thorough analysis or exegesis of the teachings of the 
Book of Inspiration, on the subject of temperance in 
all its diversified bearings. Whether or not the 
Bible favors, by suggestion or command, that human 
statutes should or should not be provided to prevent 
the possibility of the excessive use of intoxicants by 
statutory inhibition, so that under any circum- 
stances it would not be possible for any man. woman 
or minor ever to become intoxicated. We believe 
that the Bible is as silent on the question of prohibi- 
tion statutory legislation to prevent the possibility 
of inebriation as it is to prevent adultery, fornica- 
tion, uncleanness. lasciviousness. idolatry, witch- 
craft, hatred. ' variance, emulations, wrath, strife, 
seditions, heresies, envyings. murders, revelings and 
such like. In this catalogue of offences against 



God's moral government — is drunkenness. St. Paul 
says, "they that do such things sliall not inherit the 
kingdom of God.'' Galatians, 5 ch, 19-21 v. Phil- 
anthropic and profoundly pious christian prohibion- 
ists see nothing in this chain of flagrant practices to 
claim their consideration and denunciation but 
drunkenness — not a whit worse immorality than any 
others denounced. This small volume will furnish 
the reader with ample compensation for its expense, 
and the time necessary to examine its claim Upon 
the confidence of all that are capable of deducing 
from reliable premises and undisputed facts, conclu- 
sions commanding their ready and unhesitating 
approval. 

To all concerned, 

Respectfully, 

FRANCIS M. ENGLISH. 
Jersey yille, III., 
January 1, 1891. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

The principle, fanaticism, seeks to have formu- 
lated into law; by State and National legislation — 
for the government of the voluntary conduct of men 
different from the universally accepted moral laws 
of civilization, should "be commended by authority 
that all concerned could approve, advocate and de- 
fend. 

The code of ethics demanded by prohibitionists, 
does not and never did exist, by the sanction of the 
Bible, and constitutional law, because it would sub- 
vert and destroy the rule by which mankind were to 
govern themselves in the gift, and as the condition 
of their creation; and would nullify the assump- 
tion that they were capable of self-government and 
not morally responsible for their voluntary actions, 
to any law human or divine.. 



PKOHXBITKOT A FALLACY. 



A law that a rational man or woman cannot 

violate. Is no law at alL It would be nothing imt 
brute force, a chain upon the ankles and a yoke 

around the neck. 

The man or woman in the exercise of their di- 
vinely endowed freedom of will, that could not be 
tempted to do as their choice might prompt whether 
right or wrong, and fee responsible for the conse- 
quences of praise or blame, God, never created. 

V A law of legal prohibition (prevention) of the 
use of any and every substance, natural or manu- 
factured, as a beverage or palatal gratification, that 
might from excessive use intoxicate, is of modern 
origin, fanatical in conception, impracticable in 
operation, because absurd in its demand. Legisla- 
tion that would attempt to abate or remove the 
cause of any immoral act, (intemperance is an im- 
moral act) would be without a statute to enforce it, 
an example to illustrate its application, and desti- 
tute of any merit to command respect. 

Nothing of the kind appears in the legislation 
of Jehovah, from Adam in the Garden to Moses on 
the Summit, where the great leader of Tsreal received 
the Statutes of the world, from the fiery hands of the 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. d 

great God Himself. Statutes that have never been 
repealed nor amended, and never will be, while there 
is a fish to swim in the sen, a bird to sail through 
the air, a star to twinkle in the heavens or while the 
earth shall yield a plant, the ocean roll a wave, or 
the sun shall give his light by day and the moon 
continues to shine at low twelve. These statutes to 
regulate the moral conduct of men were in force 
from the beginning, up to the funeral obsequies of 
the last prophet that ever uttered a rule for their 
enforcement for the government of men, 

]N T ext was John the Baptist, whose relation to all 
the Old Testament prophets was that of Jupiter to 
the planetary kingdom, the greatest of all the subor- 
dinate hosts that shine, 

Nothing in John's dispensation appears to sup- 
port the modern heresy of legal prohibition,— the 
statutory prevention of the existence arid rational 
use of intoxicants. 

From the burning bush in Midian, where Moses 
beheld the green shrub in flames, but unconsumed, 
to the communion of the one hundred and twenty in 
the upper chamber in Jerusalen; not a statute can be 
found to support the absurdity that gospel temper- 
ance prohibitionists demand. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



Nor from tlie benediction of the last supper, 
where the redeeming Christ touched the wine cup of 
sacramental remembrance to the lips of the immor- 
tal twelve, to the closing vision of John upon the 
lonely Isle of Patmos, no such interdiction is inti- 
mated, in the evangelical and apostolic teachings. 

Yet inspiration thunders and blazes with injunc- 
tion and restraint, not to use intoxicants intemper- 
ately — to excess; with penal consequence as frightful 
as flames, and without repentance as dreadful as 
eternal retribution. 

But, the fanaticism of prohibitionists demand 
that state and national enactment, must abate — pro- 
hibit — prevent, the occasion (not the cause) of drunk - 
eness, that intemperance may universally and for- 
ever cease. To illustrate the absurdity of prohibi- 
tion, the principle of it is this: That whereas for 
business, profit and pleasure, the bosom of the 
rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, have been burdened 
with crafts of steam and sail and mechanical appli- 
ances for centuries, the incidental consequences of 
which, millions of lives have been imperilled and 
sacrificed, and billions of treasure forever lost to its 
owners, and to the commerce of the world; therefore 
they should be prohibited — prevented. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



The great apostle Paul, the hero of Athens, and 
confounder of the Areopagite, was a passenger and a 
prisoner on one of these commercial agencies, when 
the entire cargo was lost, and the prond monarch of 
tli-- seas surrendered to the vengeance of the temp- 
est, and two hnndred and seventy-six human lives 
were jeopardised for many days on account of the 
unabated violence of the storm, insomuch that all 
hope of escaping a watery tomb vanished. Acts. 27 
Chap. If you please, think of the lives and treas- 
ure that have perished in consequence of the nse of 
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers alone, as the path- 
ways of pleasure, bnsiness and profit during the last 
hundred years in the use of the thousands of devices 
in the interest of rational want and necessity, from 
the canoe, skiff, ferry and freight-boats, keel and 
barges up to the grand steam-propelling palaces 
whose thundering waves have shaken the slumber- 
ing shores of the Mississippi, and floated driftwood, 
corks and corn-stalks on the Ohio for nearly a 
century. 

The principles of legal prohibition teach, that 

such disaster- should he prohibited: Xot by legis- 
lation that all such crafts shall perform their func- 
tions by agencies capable of secnring to rational 



6 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

men and women, all the benefits of pleasure and 
profit involved in their use in the lawful pursuits of 
life; with such penalties as will oblige fidelity to 

such legislation; but the legislation, the principle of 
prohibitionists — is to abate these natural, and arti- 
ficial provisions — mankind's rational wants demand. 
Their logic is this: That no proud craft of steam or 
sail may ever again blow up, burn up. capsize or 
sink; on account of which lives and treasures may 
be lost or destroyed; from source to continence, or 
from the Monongahela and the Alleghany, with 
every stream that contributes to press its shores and 
deepen its channel, from Pittsburg to Cairo — the 
Ohio must be dried up, or in some way destroyed: 
then steam, and other boat disasters will surcease 

forever, 

« 

Such are legitimate deductions from the reason- 
ing of politico-religio-fanatical-gospel temperance 
prohibitionists. This brood of par-excellent philan- 
thropic moralists have become bold; assuming per- 
fection in morals and a degree in christian attain- 
ment above all others not of their sentiment and 
purpose. They denounce all connected with the 
'infernal liquor traffic" as they call it. as "murder- 
ers!" Inhumanity the principle that governs them. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 7 

Inexcusable depravity their haibits, and hell their 
destination. Because they fail to shout great is the 
Diana they worship,, gospel temperance prohibition, 
achievable only by statutory — human legislation. 
If inebriation may be prevented, (not prohibited, for 
drunkeness is already prohibited — forbidden with 
penalty, so far as God has ever legislated on the 
subject) may not the same authority obliterate the 
entire catalogue of immoral offences? If not, why? 

The Bible is admitted an all sufficient rule of 
faith and practice for the government of all men, re- 
gardless of nationality, or any other circumstantial 
condition, and whatever is not taught therein can be 
inferred therefrom, and proven thereby, is not to be 
received, but rejected as heretical and without the 
demands of God Himself, whose statutes are perfect 
for the government of mankind — to the end of the 
world. They are perspicuous on the question of 
temperance, wherein not a suggestion is made — from 
Genesis to Revelations, by patriarchs, prophets. 
John the Baptist, the Redeeming Christ, His Evange- 
lists and Apostles, that local option, total abstinence 
or statutory prohibition, is any part of his revealed 
will. They demand temperance in every dispensa- 
tion from ail men. with ample -penalties to restrain 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



from offending and to provoke ready and cheerful 
obedience and nothing more. 

As the pulpit with its cognate alliances, the co- 
operation of all civil enactments from Theodosius 
and Justinian to the present time, encouraged by 
such moral suasion, and has failed to accomplish 
ends demanded by prohibitionists, is it safe or wise 
to set aside such agencies and depend upon the un- 
certain, the unreliable will of a legislation, con- 
trolled by the corrupt sentiments of partisan politics 
to effect — by unconstitutional enactments — not re- 
quired, not commanded by divine authority, a result 
the combined forces mentioned have proved inade- 
quate to achieve. 

In all this inflammatory crusade against the 
"infernal liquor traffic" as the assumed piety or 
philanthropy of prohibitionists call it, the epitaph 
of defeat remains upon its unwrinkled brow; yet it 
is ignorantly or insanely presumed that state and 
national legislation would be the panacea. 

From the days of Dio Lewis, the originator and 
organizer of the church women's praying and singing 
crusade against the saloons by which Lewis reaped 
a financial harvest in the sale of his so called temper- 
ance books, it has been manifest — with some excep- 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 9 

tions that the distinguished itinirant hireling tem- 
perance harranguers have been influenced more by 
the motive of financial compensation for servicer 
rendered, or for political notoriety in hope of official 
distinction through this depraved instrumentality, 
than to "save the drunkard from the drunkard's 
grave." 

Remember St. John and Gen. Fisk, candidates 
for 23residential honors, with $50,000 a year, if acci- 
dentally successful dazzling to their gaze. And 
where is the lather and his "talented boys," the 
Murphy? with their budget of laughable anecdotes 
and sycophantical motto, "We have malice towards 
none and charity for all." They are yet in the field. 
Who cares or is concerned for either their charity or 
malice. Their equals in all respects, not to say 
their superiors as good citizens and christians are 
engaged in the liquor traffic. And who cares or is 
concerned for either their charity or malice in their 
mercenary pilgrimage throughout the states, with 
the pulpit pew. Sabbath school children and temper- 
ance organizations, the W. C. T. U. shouting their 
approach and compensating their service with a 
bank account far beyond that in reach of their time 
and talents given to any other calling. 



10 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

When benevolent and beneficent labors rome 
from the promptings that it pays better than any 
thing else in which I can engage my time and tal- 
ents, superior intelligence and moral honesty 
should except to the pretentions assumptions of such 
imposters and impositions, and protest the demands 
upon popular credence, and for undeserved financial 
remuneration. 

From the beginning of public efforts, more than 
half a century ago, to relieve society of disturbing 
inebriation — to the extent then common — public and 
.domestic, by odds less than now, and to restore to 
sobriety all that might have been, or might be over 
come by excessive indulgence in intoxicants, noth- 
ing was more appropriate and commendible, than 
public addresses, and newspaper literature — assert- 
ing the demands of inspiration that all men should 
"live soberly" "be sober" and to "be not drunk with 
wine wherein is excess". * The work of temperance 
reformation was originally from the pulpit of the 
churches, especially the Methodist Church, whose 
discipline disallowed membership to any who 
indulged dram-drinking and drunkeness, and 

would not repent." 

"'■• It is the excess and not the use of the wine that is forbidden. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 11 

At first temperance lectures were cognates 
of ministerial labors. The preachers were required 
by conference resolves to preach expressly on 
temperance. This habit became diffusive and the 
pulpits of the churches generally entertained their 
congregations periodically with temperance sermons. 
The monstrosity of legal prohibition was slow of 
incubation, such fanaticism was sluggish in its mani- 
festation. It was a hybrid of questionable qualities 
in its first conception. It demanded as a condition 
for its birth and baptism, a low grade of political de- 
pravity, and mercenary stimulation into a tangible 
entity. 

It is a bald-headed and dough-faced misnomer 
for a christian morality, that it is necessary for men 
(some men) to be christians they must be placed by 
civil legislation beyond the possibility of being 
tempted to become inebriates. It was stated by a 
doctor of divinity on the floor of annual conference 
as his reason why he favored a resolution asking the 
state legislature to enact a prohibitory law and that 
the conference should forbid anything but sweet wine 
for sacramental purposes, that he had a member in his 
station who was started on a spree from the stimula- 
tion of the sacramental cup at every communion. 



12 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



But church patronage, with the special zeal of 
the church-women becoming politicians soon popu- 
larized the temperance specialty of public lecturing 
on temperance, insomuch it offered a field for useful- 
ness for, here and there, a gifted orator, with a stipu- 
lated salary to give harrangues on temperance 
rather than to preach the gospel and call the mourn- 
ers as aforetime. 

But not the pulpit alone has supplied the tem- 
perance lecture field with shining intellects of the 
highest intelligence to enforce the Bible demands of 
temperance, but many, if not every state in the 
Union, has had its representation from the. field and 
forge, from the bench of the jurist, and from the bar 
of the barrister. And the offices of the healing 
art have not been delinquent in contributions to tem- 
perance lecture fields; all pleading the cause of tem- 
perance to prevent their fellow men from being over- 
come by u tarrying too long" at, and drinking too 
deeply from the cup of intoxication. Upon this altar 
Kentucky — besides many others, within a half 
century, has offered up its Thomas F. Marshall, the 
Jupiter in the constellation of Kentucky's oratorical 
splendors. 

His forensic blade was as keen as was ever un- 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. IB 



sheathed before the ermine of any judicial bench or 
lacerated the guilty conscience of a perjured incum- 
bent upon the witness stand, or bribed juryman 
sworn to a seat in the legal panel. 

This star of magnitude once traversed his native 
state as a temperance lecturer. The brilliance of his 
orations, the grandeur of his conceptions, the perspic- 
uity of his incisive logic, the invulnerability of his 
arguments, the cyclonic sweep of his impassioned elo- 
quence winged to sublimest heights, by his inflam- 
matory zeal, in the grand work of reclaiming the 
"addicted" and to prevent the sober from the attrac- 
tions of the intoxicating cup are still remembered by 
the thousands, while long ago he began his slumbers 
in the seclusion and solitude of uninterrupted death. 

But our object in this treatise is not to disgust 
patience, and stupify the understanding, burden the 
memory and bewilder the imagination, by elabora- 
tion in the array of authorities and the detail of facts 
that temperance in all thing is philosophically cor- 
rect, and demanded throughout the Book of Inspira- 
tion as indispensibly necessary to the welfare of 
every membier of the human race. 

But the main — central object, the controlling 
thought — is to answer the question, does the Bible 



14 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



teach the doctrine of political prohibition (statutory 
prevention) of the existence of any and every sub- 
stance — the gift of nature — or the result of manufac- 
ture, so that inebriation will forever be impossible. 

We deny that the Bible teaches such a doetfine, 
and assert that it is contrary to the teachings of the 
Bible. 

Not a protest against the existence and use of 
intoxicants can be found in any chapter or verse of 
inspiration as the means of preventing the abuse of 
the rational use of intoxicants. Hence the fanati- 
cism of prohibitionists in their attempt to ignore, set 
aside and abandon the Bible, as a code of morals, 
wholly inadequate in its injunctions and restraints, 
with awards to obedience bright as a well grounded 
hope of immortality can inspire; and with penalties 
for disobedience as dreadful as the vengeance of 
eternal retribution; and instead, human legislation 
must be evoked, not for the execution of God's moral 
laws, but to have instituted a new rule for men's 
moral government not mentioned in any part of the 
entire volume of inspiration. 

Such morally insane conceptions would suggest 
that the Great God, and father of the human race. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 15 



had been either reprehensibly careless, inexcusably 

Indifferent or wholly incompetent to provide ade- 
quate laws for the government of His own intelli- 
gences, called men and women. 



s 



Get the exact size with every feature of a full 
grown pharisee, as delineated in the scriptures, and 
you have the photograph of modern prohibition gos- 
pel — temperance lecturers. 

We will now proceed to present for the honest 
consideration of all disposed to pursue the subse- 
quent pages of this small volume, every text in the 
Bible, giving, as we believe, its exact meaning, as it 
was intended to be understood, that bears directly 
or remotely upon the use of intoxicants. The 
reader, therefore, will be compensated far beyond 
the cost of the book, as it constitutes an encyclopae- 
dia or concordance of the texts in the Bible, that 
refer to the subject, not one of which teaches the 
doctrine of prohibition, local option, or total absti- 
nence, either expressly by precept or example or by 
implication. Yet, in a great many of which, intoxi- 
cation is forbidden, prohibited, but not prevented, 
and, in many others, unqualifiedly with severest 
penalty condemned. 



16 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



As there is no other publication of the kind 
known to the author, he has been so thorough in the 
examination of the scriptures on the subject, that it 
can be relied upon as a text book as to what the 
Bible teaches on the question of temperance. What 
then is said in the Bible — both the Old and New tes- 
tament scriptures, bearing on the use of intoxicants, 
no matter by what title given, whether wine, the 
vinegar ' of wine, strong drink or the vinegar of 
strong drink; any chemical substance, the gift of 
nature or artificial compound or manufacture, that 
by excessive use might intoxicate to the extent of 
superinducing drunkeness? 

First then, attention is directed to the inebria- 
tion by excessively using wine, of one of the best 
men that ever lived. See Genesis, 19 ch., 30-38 v. 
Here you have the momentous history of Lot. His 
purity of character was his divinely recognized 
shield against the destructive fire that cremated or 
reduced to ashes every existing thing — including 
every human being — male and female, man, woman 
and child that breathed the breath of life in Sodom 
and Gomorroh, excepting only himself, wife and 
two daughters; and in their escape from the ven- 
geance of consuming flames, Lot's faith and fidelity 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 17 



of character was superior to that of his wife's, who 
for a cause known only to herself, "looked back and 
became a pillar of salt." 

Yet in a brief period afterwards this illustrious 
man, around whose brow had encircled the glory of 
divine approbation, was found in a caye not far dis- 
tant from his homestead, the little City of Zoar, so 
brutally drunk that he was obliyious to the presence 
of his remaining family — consisting of only his two 
grown daughters, entirely unconscious of being a 
particip criminis to moral offences a thousand fold 
more disasterous to his own personal character and 
that of his daughters, than to have been drunk for a 
thousand times. But prohibitionists may claim that 
the disaster that befell Lot and his daughters was 
caused by wine. Not a word of it. The wine was 
only the occasion and not the cause, any more than 
the "forbidden fruit" was the cause of the down-fall 
of Eye or that Eye was the cause of the down-fall of 
Adam. Eye was the occasion of Adam's fall, the 
fruit and the devil were the occasions but not the 
cause of Eve's fall. The wine was the occasion and 
not the cause of Lot's disaster to himself and daugh- 
ters — steam was never the cause of boiler explosions 
by which thousands of lives have betm destroyed. 



18 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

The conflagration that years ago destroyed Chicago, 
was not the cause of the destruction only the occa- 
sion. 

There is as distinct a difference in the ethical 
import of the terms cause and occasion as agencies 
in prompting a voluntary act, good or bad, as there 
is in the difference between an icicle and a coal of 
fire. And there is as much sense in charging that 
the forbidden fruit and the devil were the cause of 
Eve's fall — and that Eve was the cause of Adam's 
fall, as to charge that wine was the cause of the ca- 
tastrophe to Lot and his daughters. 

It was not the old cow, the milk-shed, the milk- 
maid nor the upset lamp that caused the destruction 
of Chicago. Failure to extinguish the fire before it 
reached the destructive vengeance of a conflagration 
w r as the cause. Nor was it the old cow, nor the milk 
shed, nor the milk-maid, nor the lamp containing 
the source of the conflagration that caused the des- 
truction of Chicago. They were but the occasion. 
Each separte element was a good thing. The in- 
flammatory qualities of the milk-shed, the milk- 
maid's placing the lamp in such relation to the heels 
of the cow that her unexpected kick upset it, then 
the combustible of the shed took fire that continued 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 19 

until the city was in ruins. The improper handling 
of the lamp by the milk-maid was the cause of the 
disaster. 

It would not do to demand that statutory legis- 
lation must prohibit — prevent, the existence of a 
milk-shed, coal oil lamp, a milch-cow and a milk- 
maid, because of the possibility of a disaster to 
property and life by a milk-maid's incorrectly hand- 
ling a coal-oil lamp when she had to milk after 
night. Handle intoxicants correctly and no more 
harm will be done than would have been the result 
had the milk-maid used the lamp properly. But, 
two points we wish to make against the heresy and 
fanaticism of prohibitionists from the biblical and 
logical standpoint. God did not prevent Eve from 
being tempted nor her surrender to temptation, nor 
did He prevent Lot from becoming intoxicated. 
Secondly; that intoxicants existed in the days of 
Lot, as certainly as that the forbidden fruit and 
the devil existed in the days of Eve. Thirdly; nor 
did there exist in the days of Eve and Lot, a law, 
such a,s prohibitionist are now seeking to have en- 
acted by state and the national legislation for the 
moral government of men. 



20 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



NOAH. 



Next we review the case of Noah. Genesis 9- 
20 J 24 v. In this detail we have the comprehensive 
portrait of the oldest "preacher of righteousness" 
that ever lived— -before or since the flood. His min- 
istry continued for one hundred and twenty years. 
And, to the eiid of his momentous life, not a shadow 
of blemish or reproof of moral deficiency or delin- 
quency rests upon his character, excepting only the 
one instance of inexcusable intoxication mentioned 
in the text. So consecrated in faith and practice, to 
God's revealed will, that he enjoyed the divine favor 
in so full a degree that, at the end of his ministry, 
while the reverberating thunders were echoing in 
alarming import above his devoted head, and an im- 
paralleled rain fall was indicated by lightnings that 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. . 21 

flashed upon his bewildered vision, shattering into 
fragments the sturdy oaks and stately poplars that 
had reigned as forest kings in the valleys and upon 
the mountains for a thousand years ast evidence of 
divine partiality and approval, it was whispered 
into his ears from above the pathway of the raging 
storm and falling waters that submerged every 
thing grow r ing and green and extinguished the 
breath and destroyed the life of every human being 
of men women and children, that his servant, Noah, 
his wife, his three sons and their wives should es- 
cape the general disaster, which would be effected 
by a life-preserver, called the. Ark. This device by 
divine instruction he had prepared for the result 
now to be achieved. At the end of this miraculous 
overflow, Noah and his household are safely 
anchored upon the top of the mountain, Ararat, 
whose summit was far above the wildest waves of 
the destroying deluge. 

Then, after such r manifestations of the divine 
favor to himself and family, and while they were the 
only representatives of the race of mankind on the 
face of all the earth, and while the wails of the 
dying and the agonizing groans of man and beast in 
their struggle against such an overwhelming ruin, 



22 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

were still echoing in every breath of the wind, bur- 
dening his ears with the sorrows of the dead im- 
perishably sepulchered in his memory! Among the 
first products of the soil— responsive to his own 
hand — in its cultivation and before time and circum- 
stances had contributed to his. necessities sufficiently 
to provide a comfortable homestead, his vineyard 
supplied him with the stimulating extract of the 
grape, ample to overcome his sobriety by excessive 
indulgence and he is to be seen in his tent in a state 
of exhausting demoralizing intoxication. 

That no fanatical prohibitionist, or, any one else, 
may charge that the color in our rainbow that encir- 
cles the scene we delineate are too strongly tinctured 
with imaginary hues, we direct the eyes of all that 
may doubt the fidelity of our portrait, to examine the 
dyes and brush with which we have thrown the pic- 
ture upon the canvas for observation. The text says, 
"And Noah began to be a husbandman and he plant- 
ed a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was 
drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent.— 
And Noah awoke from his wine &c." 

The prohibitionist is requested to read the entire 
details of this remarkable event in the history of a 
great and good man; and he may see that there was 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 23 

then, as now, other ways for men to sin besides using 
intoxicants to excess. And another impression may 
be made that the great God did not denounce Noah 
as a beast and brute for this reprehensible indiscre- 
tion and avoidable weakness. Nor did he then and 
there institute a prohibitory law for Noah's future 
government. There is nothing in prohibition but 
fanaticism and absurdity. 

We presume from the days of Noah to the day 
of grace, A. D. 1890, the great God has remained the 
same in all the qualities and attributes of his eternal 
nature, so that what was offending to his moral law 
then, is still the subject of his disapproval. 

Nothing in the qualities of man's nature has 
changed demanding a new rule for the moral govern- 
ment of men. Such being the undisputed facts in the 
case what respect can be challenged from anyone, 
saint or sinner, for the opinions of that remarkable 
product of pulpit notoriety at nearly the close of the 
19th century, A. D. 1890, in the person and minister- 
ial pretensions of the Rev. Sam Jones. From many 
of the pulpit utterances of this distinguished repre- 
sentative of the sacred desk, (pulpit) a sample of 
which is hereto attached, he has been awarded the 
sobriquet of an ecclesiastical blackguard, with a sad 



24 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

and radical departure from the standard of dignity, 
self respect and a civilized estimate of the feelings of 
the audiences he has had the opportunity and honor 
to publicly address, as an accredited preacher of the 
gospel of the redeeming Christ. Meekness, humanity, 
and forbearing patience in reproving and rebuking 
the ungodly, and patiently persuading the sinner to 
repent; luminous and attractive characteristics of all 
the examples furnished in apostolic preaching for the 
salvation of sinners. This gentleman will forever re- 
member his entrance, into and departure from the 
Methodist pulpit in the city of Evans ville somewhere 
near a year ago. So desperate and unlike the man- 
ner and matter of the preachings of the apostles in 
reasoning of "sin, righteousness, and a judgment to 
come," his denunciation, riot so much of sin, as the 
sinners of Evansville, -that it worked a storm of in- 
dignation and contempt in disgust and disapprobation 
fromthepress and the ;best class of citizens, general- 
ly, and church members, that Mr.- J^nes became so 
impressed as to prefer other fields for ministerial per- 
formances, and left with unmistakable evidence that 
his services were not needed in that city. What this i 
renowned devine(?) would have saidj had he been con- 
temporaneous with Noah, may be inferred from what 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 25 

he is reported to have said in one of his characteristic 
sermons on a popular occasion in the year of our Lord 
1890. Read the extract ladies and gentlemen of the 
prohibition faith; read it christians, entitled to the 
name, read it, and then say what you think such a 
divine as Sam Jones would have said had he, with 
his exuberant piety exercised his functions as a 
divine at the time Noah was found by his son, Ham, 
naked and drunk in his tent. 

The extract says: 

Sam Jones is evidently not afraid to let people 
know where he stands. Hear him: "As a minister 
of the gospel of Jesus Christ I denounce wi.th all the 
earnestness of my soul, this awful traffic in human 
souls, and renounce my allegiance to any party or 
politics favoring or licensing it; hence I declare I am a 
concentrated, consolidated, eternal, uncompromising. 
every day in the year, inside out, stand up and be 
knocked down prohibitionist; and brethren, I am no 
more to be blamed for being a prohibitionist than I 
am to blame for being Sam Jones. I was born the 
one, and circumstances made me the other. I believe 
that those who make whisky, those who sell it, the 
men who rent places where it is to be sold and those 
who vote for whisky are all going to hell. So help 



26 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

me God. I am for a clean fight every time with their 
hellish traffic and all the devils in hell cannot shut 
my mouth on this subject. No man can be a christ- 
ian unless he votes as he prays." 

We remark that such utterances about as nearly 
represent the history of "Sinbad the Sailor" or the 
25th chapter of the "Arabian Nights Entertainment" 
as the teaching of Christ and his Apostles. 



ISAAC. 



Next we call attention to Isaac, the illustrious 
father of Jacob and Esau. 

Isaac was one of the patriarchs and next to 
"Abraham the friend of God" and Isaac's father. 
The liquor traffic was in existence in the days of the 
patriarch Isaac and his father, Abraham. Thejiion- 
strous conception of political prohibition had not 
had a brain for its agitation and a heart for its im- 



PBOHIBITION A FALLACY. 27 

pulse up to that day. See Genesis; 27 ch., 25, 27- 

37v. Where on his dying couch Isaac received wine 
a the hands of his son. Jacob. Said the father, "I 

will eat of mv son's venison that my soul may bless 
thee/' and he brought him wine and he drank. 
Then Isaac, the father, said to his Bon, Jacob. "God 
give thee the dew of heaven, fatness of the earth, plen- 
ty of corn and wine." At this severe dispensation of 
Isaac the father, Esau remonstrated, when Isaac 
answered Esau and said; verse 37: "Behold I have 
made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given 
to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I 
sustained him." 

How contracted the views, superficial the intelli- 
gence and selfish the aims of money-seeking and 
political aspiring demagogues — itinerant gospel pro- 
hibition — men and woman temperance lecturers. 

These mercenary beef steak hunters find out the 
best localities — whose church membership is the 
largest and wealthiest, as choice fields for benevo- 
lent service. They are well known to the lectur- 
ing brother and sisterhood, as auguring the most 
gratifying returns in financial compensation. 

In Genesis, 43-34. we have these words. "But 
Benjamin's, mess was five times so much as any of 



28 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

theirs. And they drunk, and were merry/ 3 The 
fluid drunk — we presume was wine or some other in- 
toxicant, as it made them merry. ' This event was 
1707 years before Christ. 

Whether or not it would have been, or was law- 
ful for Aaron and his sons to use wine and strong- 
drink temperately; on other occasions, except when 
engaged in the official devotional services of the tab- 
ernacle, the record is silent. It is probable the obli- 
gation of >abstinence was continuous, as the character 
of the priesthood should be beyond liability to be- 
come intoxicated at any time. The point is clear 
however, that intoxicants were in use in the days of 
Aaron and his sons. 

INext we have allusion to the cultivation of the 
grape. 25 ch., 3-4 v. say: u Six years shalt thou 
sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy 
vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but on the 
seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest to the land; 
a Sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy 
field, nor prune thy vineyard." 

In this statute there is no prohibition on the sev- 
enth year to cultivate the grape, any more than the 
cultivation of any other growth of the field. There 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 29 

was tlien no interdiction of the use of the grape ex- 
cepting for the purpose mentioned, which had no 
connection with the object of modern prohibitionists. 
23 ch, 13 v, says: "And the drink offering thereof 
shall be of wine." 1,490 years before Christ. 



EXODUS. 



Is the next book to Genesis. In the 29 ch, 40 v, 
these directions in divine service occur: "And with 
the one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning, one 
fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering." In 
this case, w r ine w^as a part of sacrificial service. 
Wine then was in use, as in the days of Christ and 
employed in the devotion to Almighty God. % 



30 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



LEVITICUS. 



In the 10 ch of Leviticus, the obligation of the 
priesthood is distinctly enunciated; 8th verse says, 
"and the Lord spoke unto Aaron, saying: 4 "Do not 
drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with 
thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congrega- 
tion lest ye die." ' Drunkenness is odious in any one 
but especially it must not be induced in by minis- 
ters of sacred service, hence emphatically forbidden 
to Aaron and his sons. 



NUMBERS. 



Is the next book of the Old Testament, chapter 
6, verses 2-5, you have these words directly from 
Jehovah to Moses, "Speak unto the children of Isreal 
and say unto them, when either man or woman shall 
separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite to 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 31 



separate themselves unto the Lord, lie shall separate 
himself from icine and strong drink and shall drink 
no vineagar of wine, or strong drink, neither shall he 
drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or 
dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat 
nothing that is made of the vine tree from the ker- 
nals even to the husk. All the days of the vow of 
his separation there shall no razor come upon his 
head until the days be fulfilled in which he separa- 
ted himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall 
let the locks of the hair of his head grow &c." 

In this divine enactment observe first that the 
obligation of toted abstinence from every substance 
that might possibly produce inebriation, whether of 
wine, the vinegar of wine — which means fully fer- 
mented wine; strong drink — an inllamatory com- 
pound made in imitation of grape wine, of dates, tigs, 
honey,, etc., of a read}' intoxicating effect, a populai 
beverage used excessively in idolatrous worship, here 
forbidden only to a Nazarite, and no more perempt- 
orily forbidden than to indulge in the use of dried 
grapes, the kernals and husks of the vine tree, the 
razor upon the beard, or scissors upon the locks, or 
the hair of the head. Secondly this temperance ob- 
ligation was voluntarily assumed, the men and wo- 



32 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

men signing such pledge did it from choice, not from 
compulsion. Its application was to themselves and 
none others. Thirdly, it was not of perpetual obliga- 
tion, the pledge of total abstinence could be violated 
at pleasure, but it forfeited the character of the Naz- 
arite that did it, just as the sober man forfeits his 
character for sobriety the moment he allows intoxi- 
cation to prostrate his manhood. Without further 
elaboration, is it not certain that intoxicants existed 
in the time of Moses, and that there was then, no 
statute forbidding their temperate use? 

See 6 ch. 15 v. and 15 ch. 7-10-24 v. where wine 
is required for a drink offering. Next, observe in the 
28th ch. that this drink offering of wine was not what 
prohibitionists will say was the fermented juice of 
the grape, but possessed intoxicating qualities. 7 
verse says, "And the drink offering thereof shall be 
a fourth part of a hin for one lamb. In the 
holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be 
poured unto the Lord for a drink offering.- ' 

We confess to a lack of capacity to determine 
whether it is ignorance or a cheaper grade of de- 
ficiency that preponderates in that class of men 
claiming to be called of God, to preach his truth, that 
are everlastingly lamenting the misfortune of the 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 33 



church, that it is compelled to use the sacramental 
cup, sparkling with fermented wine, when the fact is 
the juice of the grape without fermentation, such as 
Christ used and made of water, is no wine at all. The 
best scholarship of the 19th century, enjoying lin- 
guistic diplomacy, in answer to the question as to 
his opinion of the chemical condition of the wine 
used by Christ at the last supper, said: u L T nfermented 
wine*is fermented nonsense/' 

Christianity is not a myth, nor the christian 
scriptures a falsehood. And the piety of the modern 
pulpit, or pew, that undertakes to improve upon the 
pattern given from the Mount, and its illustration from 
the Garden of Eden to the Isle of Patmos would be too 
pharasaical to merit respectful consideration, much 
less the commendation its ignorance, vanity and pre- 
sumption demand. 



34 PKOHIBITIOJ^ A FALLACY. 



DEUTERONOMY. 



32 ch, 38 v, records the existence of wine as far 
back as 1451 before Christ. The sons of the faithful 
were both gluttons and drunkards — see 21 ch, 20-21 
v, for which offence God required them to be. stoned 
to death. The rotten sentiment that finds expression 
in the prayers of the pulpit for murderers in prison 
cells, and upon the gallows; in the laxity of christ- 
ian morals at the present day, had no countenance 
from the great God in the administration of Moses. — 
29 ch, read this chapter from 10 to 29. The many 
ways in which men and women disregard the law of 
God are recited, and God's method of dealing with 
offenders. Among other ways to sin was to add 
"drunkeness to thirst," v 19. Law, and not fanati- 
cism, was the order then. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 35 

We respectfully ask the attention of the modern 
pulpit, pew, and the "Women's Temperance Christ- 
ian Association" especially the scholarly, philan- 
thropic, and we would like to say the motherly at- 
tention of Miss Susan B. Anthony (she was recently 
elected to the presidency of the above named organi- 
zation) to the following interview of the great God 
with his vicegerent, Moses. — Deuteronomy 14 ch, 
from 23 to 26 verse: "And thou shalt eat before the 
Lord thy God, in the place he shall choose to place 
his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine and 
of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and thy 
flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy 
God always. And if the way be too long for thee, 
so that thou art not able to carry it, or if the place 
be too far for thee,, which the Lord thy God shall 
choose to set his name there — wiien the Lord thy 
God has blessed thee, then thou shalt turn it into 
money, and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt 
go into the place which the Lord thy God shall 
choose, and thou shalt bestow that money for what- 
soever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or 
for wine, or for strong DRINK, or for whatsoever 
thy soul desireth, and thou shalt eat there before the 
Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy 
household." 



36 PROIIIBITIOX A FALLACY. 



The great principles of personal independence 
and responsibility, based upon an intelligence that 
the God of the universe recognized as worthy of his 
attention and approval were never repealed by the 
Lord Jesus Christ, nor his inspired apostles. So we 
conclude that modern legal prohibition is a monster 
of such hideous mien, "that, to be hated, is but to be 
seen.'* There is nothing of God, humanity, civiliza- 
tion, Christianity, common sense, nor any other quali- 
ty of law or ethics to commend it to the approval of 
anyone. Deuteronomy 15 ch, 10-14 v, has an item 
as to the existence of w x ine and its uses 1451 years 
before Christ. 7 ch, 13 v, says: u He (God) will also 
bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, 
thy corn and thy wine" &c. 

It is not complimentary to the modern pulpit but 
condemnatory of it, and all its allies of prohibition 
advocates, whether they appear in Women's Christ- 
ian Temperance organizations— headed as president 
of the association by Miss Susan B. Anthony, or any 
other politically interested agencies, to express an 
ignorant contempt for God's administration of his 
own affairs, for the welfare of his own people, whose 
devotion to God was equal, if not superior to the 
qualities of the Christian CTmrclies of the latter part 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 37 

of the 19th century. The idea that human legisla- 
tion must come to the relief of the sacramental service 
of the christian churches, advertises the impoteney 
and imbecility of the modern pulpit and its adjuncts. 



JUDGES. 



In this book, 13 ch, 4, 7, 14 verses, &c: "There- 
fore I pray thee drink not wine nor strong drink." 
This event was 1161 years before Christ. No legal 
prohibition then. Divine authority was the rule at 
that time. 



RUTH, 



Comes next, and the only transaction of drink' 
ing — whether it would intoxicate judge for yourself. 
The text, 3ch, 7 v, says: "When Boaz had eaten 
and drunk his heart was merry, &c. 



38 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



1st SAMUEL. 



Is the next hook to Ruth. 1st eh, 24 v is a won- 
derful use of wine, especially as it was an integral 
in the dedication of her son, Samuel, to the service 
of the God of Isreal. It is worth more than the time 
for the reader at convenience to turn to this chapter 
and read it all. . Next we quote from 10 ch, 3 v. 
"Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and 
thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor and there 
shall meet thee three men going up to God to Beth- 
el. One carrying three kids, another carrying three 
loaves of bread and another carrying a bottle of 
WINE." Read the whole chapter. See 16-20: 
"And Jessie took a bottle of wine and a kid and 
sent them by David unto Saul." Wonder what 
Iowa prohibitionists think of such depravity as here 
cited, or of such apostates from Christianity as in- 
stituted a prohibitory law forbidding the juice of 
grapes, or even cider for family use. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 39 



Prohibition and phariseeism were without quo- 
tation marks in the prices current circular of fanati- 
cism in days of Jesse, David and Saul. Iowa, Kan- 
sas and the Saints of Maine were subsilentio at that 
remote period. I now call attention to the existence 
of intoxicants in the days' of David, 25 ch, 18 v: 
"Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred 
loaves and two bottles of wine and live sheep 
already dressed and five measures of parched corn 
and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred 
cakes of figs, &c." 36 v, and Abigail came to Nabal 
and behold he held a feast in his house like the feast 
of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within 
him, for he was very drunken. Here is the exist- 
ence of intoxicants directly under the eye of David. 
It is of no importance whether or not he approved or 
condemned it. He accepted the result of Nabal' s ex- 
cessive use of intoxicants for which God killed him, 
and Abigail became David's wife. Will the reader 
turn to the 25 ch, and read from the 38 to 40 v, 
which gives in detail the whole transaction how Na~ 
bal lost ■ his life and David became the husband of 
Abigail, Nabal' s wife. 



40 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



2nd SAMUEL. 



See 10 ch, 28 v. We will only quote the verse. 
"Now Absalom had commanded his servants, say- 
ing, mark ye now when Amnon's heart is merry 
with wine. No prohibition then, notwithstanding 
David was upon the throne. We have already 
quoted, and commented upon 16 ch, 1-2 v. 



1st KINGS. 



901 years before Christ in ls1? Kings, 20 ch, 16- 
20 v, we have an exhibit of distinguished guests re- 
minding one of what happens at the present day, 
notably at the Great Capital of our country, Wash- 
ington City, D. C. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 41 



16 v says: "And they went out at noon, but 
Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavil- 
lion, (modernly called Shoreliam Flats) he and the 
kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him." 
In the 4 eh, 20 v, we have these words 1014 years be- 
fore Christ: u Judah and Isreal were many, as the 
sand which is by the sea in multitudes, eating and 
drinking and making merry. Possibly it was water 
or prohibition sweet wine that made them merry! 
such as the Women's Temperance Christian Associa- 
tion are demanding for sacramental use. Miss 
Susan B. Anthony's judgment in the premises will 
be satisfactory if disposed to depose on the pre- 
mises. 



2nd KINGS. 



18 ch, 32 v, 710 years before Christ: "A land 
of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a 
land of oil and hone}', &c." Read the whole chap- 
ter. 



42 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



1st CHRONICLES. 



In the 9 ch, 29 v, 1441 before Christ you can 
read these words: "Some of them were appointed to 
oversee the vessels and all the instruments of the 
sanctuary and the fine flour and the wine and the 
oil and the frankincense." 1048 years before Christ 
Isreal under the eye of David had a jubilee. See 12 
ch, 40 v, which reads: "Moreover they that were 
nigh them brought bread on asses, and on camels 
and on mules and on oxen, and meat, meal, cakes of 
figs, and bunches of raisins, and wine and oil, and 
oxen, and sheep abundantly, for there was joy in 
Isreal." At this great feast and jubilation they 
were from all the region round-about, and from 
Issachor, from Zebulan, and from Naphtali." This 
occasion brings to mind vividly, the grand celebra- 
tion of the inauguration to the presidency of the 
American States, at its centennial in New York — 
April — a year ago, of the illustrious Gen. George 
Washington, an account of whose travels from his 
Mt. Vernon homestead, details the fact — of the 
blending of wine or beer in his palatal demands at 
every meal. Yet no shadow of intoxication ever 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 43 

darkened the foot way of his travel from the em- 
braces of domestic comfort to the executive chair as 
the official in chief of the United States of America. 

4ch, 20 v, you have these words: "Judah and. 
Isreal were many, as the sand by the sea in multi- 
tudes, eating and drinking and making merry." 
Prohibitionists are all christians and believe the 
book of inspiration teaches the truth in all things. 
At this point I wish to call the attention of my dis- 
tinguished relation, the Rev. John B. English, whose 
name and mine are the same. His father and mine 
were brothers, of the same father and mother parent- 
age, hence he is my own dear cousin. In the name 
I am complimented because of his distinction as 
a man of letters, sound morality and christian senti- 
ment and ecclesiastical prominence as a D. D. in the 
ministry of the Baptist church of the United States of 
America. Doubtless he has honored his call to 
preach the gospel, in the estimation of Baptists, — 
and they are almost legion. But like ail other good 
and great men — Adam not excepted, he has blunder- 
ed frightfully in his conceptions that modern prohi- 
bition temperance is an indispensible attribute of 
Christianity. I am led to my ideas of his faith by 
the following which I copy from the u Yoice," a pro- 
hibition temperance paper. Read the extract: 



44 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

DR. BROOKS AT MONTCLAIR FRIDAY EVENING. 

Dr. John A. Brooks, prohibition candidate for 
Vice-President, and Dr. J. B . English of Baltimore, 
will speak at Montclair, N. J., Friday evening, Oct. 5. 
Every voter in Dr. English's church, the Grace Bap- 
tist, is a party prohibitionist. 

I have heard Dr. Brooks talk on prohibition 
when a candidate for Vice-President. Christ was 
entertained by the talk of the devil, and I was pleas- 
ed greatly in listening to Dr. Brooks. Not that he 
was a devil, or anything thereunto pertaining, but 
I regreted the fact that a great and good 
man, as I considered Dr. Brooks to be, could be, 
by good motives but erronerous convictions brought 
down so low r in sentiment and emotion to presume to 
advocate the unscriptural, fanatical, not to 
say the absurd doctrine of prohibition. Dr. English 
in preaching prohibition is doubtless meeting the 
obligation of his convictions, but is not nearer meet- 
ing the demand of his calling than Eve when she de- 
parted from the divine will in wishing to "know good 
from evil," and deliberately departed from the plain 
instructions of her Creator, Preach the gospel my 
dear relative with all your might, but whenever you 
tincture with political prohibition you put a spider 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 45 

in the gospel pie. The fact that every member of 
your [the Grace Baptist] Church, is a prohibitionist, 
does not authorize you to preach prohibition as any 
part of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. More- 
over statutory prohibition is all politics. There is 
no politics in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Quit it, and 
honor your calling by preaching "temperance, right- 
eousness and a judgment to come." 

We further direct my distinguished relative and 
Dr. Brooks to the 27 c, 27 v, which says: "And over 
the vineyard was Shimei, the Ramathite, over the 
increase of the vineyards for the icine cellars, Zabdi 
the Shipmite." Also in the 29c, 21-22 v: "And they 
sacraliced saeralices unto the Lord, and offered burnt 
offerings unto the Lord, even a thousand bullocks, a 
thousand rams, and a thousand lambs with .their 
drinli offerings in abundance for all Isreal, and did 
eat and drink before the Lord on that day. And 
they made Solomon, the son of David, King the 
second time, and annointed him unto the Lord to be 
the chief governor, and Zadok to be priest." 



46 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



2nd CHRONICLES. 



Read 2 ch, 15 v: "Now therefore the wheat, and 
the barley, the oil, and the wine which my Lord hath 
spoken of, let him send unto my servants." 11 ch ? 
11 v, says: "And he fortified the strongholds, and 
put captains in them, and stores of victuals, and of 
oil and wine." 

Prohibitionists will say, prohibition, local op- 
tion, total abstinence, and only drug store saloons 
had a poor showing during the reign of the wisest 
king that ever had the divinely approved official 
oversight of God's people, IsreaL 

EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 



Ezra is silent. It is a book of reminescences, re- 
citing historical events. But it is worth the reader's 
rime to examine the book of Nehemiah, giving at 
length, the existence and use of wine. 

2 ch, 1 v, says: "It came to pass in the twentieth 
year of Artaxerxes, the king, that wine was before 
him, and I took up the wine and gave it unto the 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 47 

king." See 5 ch, 15 v. The 17 -18 vs read: "More- 
over there were at my table a hundred and fifty Jews 
and rulers, besides those that came in unto us from 
among the heathens that are about us, and that 
which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six 
choice sheep; also, fowls were for me, and once in ten 
days store of all sorts ofiDine." 

One of the ablest commentators to be found 
in the galaxy of ecclesiastical celebrities fur- 
nishes the following portrait of this, among the great- 
est of Bible characters, omitting only the Great God 
and Jesus Christ the Saviour. This limneric brush 
hands you the following portrait of Nehemiah: "In 
him we have the shining character of an able govern- 
or, and true patriot, deeply concerned for the good of 
his country and the honor of religion, choosing to 
leave an honorable and profitable post in the greatest 
court in the world, and generously spending the riches 
he had gained in it for the public benefit of his 
fellow Isrealites.- ' 

It is not to be wondered at that there is no pro- 
hibition sentiment among the Jews, their Bible (the 
Old Testament) does not authorize it in precept nor ex- 
ample, and is not a fact while they all drink With 



48 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

exceptions, yet, even business sobriety characterize 
them as a universal nationality. They all remember 
Nehemiah, and like good living. 

In addition to these utterances please see ch 5, v 
11, "Restore I pray you, to them, even this day, their 
land, their vineyards, their olive yards, and their 
houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of 
the corn, the wine that ye exact of them." See 10 ch 
37 v, 13 ch, 5-12 v, especially observe 15 v, which 
reads: "In those days saw I, in Judah, some treading 
wiiie presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves 
and lading asses, as also wine, grapes and tigs &c. It 
was the desecration of the Sabbath and not the wine 
&c they carried to market at which the complaint is 
alleged. 

An inadvertance caused us to overlook 6 ch, 9 v, 
in Ezra which reads: "And that which they have 
need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, 
for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, 
salt, wine , and oil, according to the appointment of 
the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given 
them day by day without fail." Any prohibition, 
local option, or total abstinence then, do you think? 



ph< or. 

4 



7ch, 20-23 v, verse 21 says- "And I, even Ar- 
taxerxes, the king, do make a decree to all the treas- 
urers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever 
Ezra, the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of 

Ilea veil shall require of you it shall be done speedily/' 
22 v: "Unto a hundred talents of silver, and to a 
hundred measures of wheat, and to a hundred baths 
of wine, and to a hundred baths of oil and salt with- 
measuring how much.' 1 23 v: "Whatsoever is 
commanded by the God of heaven let it be dilligently 
done for the house of the God of heaven/' Do pro- 
hibition christians give it up that the Jewish dispen- 
sation could worship the infinite to acceptance with- 
out the aid of the civil law, and that prohibition was 
not a demand in that dispensation? 



MELCHISEDEO and ABRAHAM. 



As far ago as the thneofMelchisedeeaiidAbrain 
subsequently called, '•Abraham the friend of 
God/* nearly 2,000 years before the birth of the re- 
deeming God — Jesus Christ, these words are record- 



50 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



eel, Genesis 14 ch, 18 v. "And Melcliisedec, King of 
Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was 
the priest of the most high God. And. he blessed him 
and said and blessed be Abraham of the most high 
God, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be 
the most high God which hath delivered thine ene- 
mies into thy hands." According to learned com- 
mentators, this offering of bread and wine was sim- 
ply a banquet to Abraham and his soldiery, for their 
gallantry and triumph, of humanity over brutality 
in their rescue of Lot, the nephew of Abraham, the 
women and goods and people held in captivity by 
Chedoriaomer, king of Sodom a,nd Gomorrah. Of this 
king of Salem, priest of the most high God, a man of 
official renown, of consummate righteousness — as 
God's servant — the idea that such a man of such 
distinction — personally and officially four thousand 
years ago — should have perpetrated so grave an of- 
fence as to offer a bakuet of iu bread and wine" to 
such a captain and his soldiery as Abraham, the 
friend of God, in token of esteem, and to invigorate 
his mind and body is enough to cause all prohibi- 
tionists to howl like hounds in the chase at the 
sound of a huntsman's bugle. Is it possible that 
such depravity should have existed two thousand 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 51 



years before Christ and that such characters as 
Abraham and Melchisedec should have been central 
figures in the scene? None but prohibitionists need 
answer this inquiry. 

The reader at his leisure, is requested to turn to 
Hebrews in the New Testament where St. Paul re- 
cites this transaction with elaboration and perspicu- 
ity, so that the events recorded in Genesis are recog- 
nized by apostolic inspiration, as verities and relia- 
ble authority that the banquet of bread and wine 
given to Abraham and his soldiers by Melchisedec 
was a transaction under the eye and with the ap- 
proval of the Great God Himself. 

In Genesis, 49ch, 11 v, reads: "Binding his 
fold to the vine and his ass's colt unto the choice 
vine, he washed his garments in wine and his 
clothes in the blood of grapes. And his eyes shall 
be red with wine and his teeth white with milk." A 
celebrated commentator, Joseph Benson, well known 
to the Methodist Ministry especially, holds these 
words in verse 11: "It is here foretold that the tribe 
of Jndah should inhabit a fruitful land, and espec- 
ially it should abound with milk and wine, that 
vines should be so common and so strong that they 
should tie their asses to them, and so fruitful that 



,VJ PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



ey should load their asses from them, mine being 
as plentiful as water, so that the men of that tribe 
should be very healthful and lively, their e} T es brisk 
and sparkling, and their teeth white. In Christ 
there is plenty of all that is nourishing and refresh 
ingto the soul, and which maintains and cheers the 
divine life. In it, in Him, we have wine and milk, 
the riches of Judah'e tribe without money and with- 
out price.-' In this event we have something thai 
transpired nearly 1700 before Christ. Temperance 
prohibition was born of ignorance and has no claim 
upon the respect of intelligence. 



ESTHER. 



Is the next bock we notice. The novel is vet to 
be written that will have the entertainment in the 
broad field of imagination and romance, with or with- 
out duplication in reality, that will equal this won- 
derful production of sacred reminiscence. It is worth 
far more than the price of the small volume to every 
Jew, especially, or Christian, to have him furnished 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 53 



with the following comment on the history of that 
wonderful woman, Esther. In this hook we are told 
"how Esther came to be queen, and Mordecai to he 
great at Court, how Hainan obtained an order for the 
destruction of the Jews, the distress of the Jews, the 
defeat of Hainan's plot against Mordecai, the defeat- 
ing of his plot against the Jews etc. The whole 
scheme failed to accomplish its purpose by the provi- 
dential appearance on the scene of "one woman" 
whose name was Esther, a Jewish captive, who, for 
her remarkable beauty, was espoused to Ahasueris 
and raised to the throne of Persia, and by her extra- 
ordinary interest in the king, rescued the Jewish 
nation from a general massacre, to which they were 
appointed by Hainan, one of the king's favorites. 
This sacred record shows the peculiar care of God 
over those Isrealites. scattered abroad among the 
heathen, and manifests that the eye of a watchful 
providence is constantly superintending all nations, 
by which the aspirings of the greatest men are often 
curbed and broken, wicked designs blasted, piety and 
virtue protected, and God declared to be the almighty 
defender of good men, and of the true religion in all 
ages and generations." We now ask the christian 
reader's attention to what the book of Esther has to 
say on the question of intoxicants. 



M PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

Chapter 1, 7 v: "And they gave tliem drink in 
vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from 
another) and 'royal wine in abundance, according to 

rlie state of the king, and the drinking was accord- 
ing to tlie law; none did compel, for the king had ap- 
pointed to all the officers of his house that they 
should do according to ev^iy mail's pleasure." 10 v: 
"On the seventh day when the heart of the king was 
merry with wine &e, &c." 5 eh, 6 v: "And the king 
said unto Esther at the banquet of wine &e, &c." 7 
oh, 2 v: "And the king said again unto Esther, on 
the second day of the banquet of wine &c, &e." 



THE BOOK OF JOB. 



We will now present for consideration what he 
has said on the subject of intoxicants; one of the most 
distinguished and reliable characters mentioned in 
the Old Testament Scriptures. In the book of Job 1 
chapter it begins: "There was a man in the land of 
Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was perfect 
and upright and one that feared God and eschewed 
evil. 55 This man was not a crank, a debauch, and 
libertine, nor prohibitionist. 2nd verse: "There were 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 55 



born unto him seven sons and three daughters- Kis 
substance also, was seven thousand sheep^ and three 

thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and 
live hundred she asses, and a very great household. 
so that this man was the greatest of all the men of 
the East." This wonderful agriculturalist flourished 
as far back as Abraham. He was a pattern of fixed 
and solid piety, all his utterances are magnificent 
and profound, his language is poetical, dramatical and 
beautiful, no matter of what subject he treats, nor 
theoceassion of his sublime utterances, his integrity. 
his unswerving devotion and unfaltering trust in God 
gives him a sublimity of charrcter never excelled in 
bible reminescences. According to the Prophet Ezekiel 
14-14. he ranked with Noah and Daniel, and the 
Apostle James places him an octave higher in moral 
granduer and spiritual purity and fidelity than all his 
contemporaries, predecessors or successors in the 
galaxy of great and holy men. Is it possible that 
such a man had his day in the reign of intoxicants, 
or that intoxicants were in reach in his day. In 1 ch, 
4 v. it is said: "His sons went and feasted in their 
houses, every one his day (birthday) and sent and 
called for their three sisters to eat and drink with 
them/' As to the nature of the fluid drank verse 13 



56 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

says: "There was a day when his sons and daughters 
were eating, and drinking wine, in their eldest broth- 
er's house." Wine, then, was the fluid drank." 

It is a fact then, that intoxicants had their use 
in the days of one of the most inveterate devotees of 
devotion to God, and unswerving consecration of his 
whole manhood and life to his reveald manifestations. 
Prohibition temperance lecturers, whether St. John, 
General Fisk, or all the smaller lights, only advertize 
their utter ignorance of the divine character of his 
administration in attempts to auction their ignorance 
to fanatical bidders in exchange, if they could, for 
political offices or financial gain. 

In the 18th verse: "Thy sons and thy daughters 
were eating and drinking wine in their eldest broth- 
er's house." We use these utterances to show that 
wine was used by men and women in the days, 
of Job, one of the holiest and wisest men 
that ever lived. We now direct attention to 12 ch, 
25 v. I will only quote the text in point, omitting 
the circumstances that led to it. "They grope in the 
dark without light, and he (God) maketh them to 
stagger like drunken men." Then it is a fact that 
Jehovah himself was advised that drunkenness had 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 57 

its subjects in the days of Job, and that no sug" 
• ion is intimated, either by the illustrious patri- 
arch or the Great God himself, that, to prevent it, 
local option, total abstinence or prohibition, by hu- 
man statutes should be interposed. 



PSALMS, 



The next book to Job is the book of Psalms. Of 
its author and authors, the distinguished commenta- 
tor, well known to all Methodist ministers, especially, 
rhe linguist, Joseph Benson, says: "We have now 
before us one of the choicest parts of the Old Testa- 
ment, wherein there is so much of Christ and his 
gospel, as well as God and his law, that it has been 
called the summary of both Testaments. This book 
has been always held in greatest veneration. Dr. 
Home in his commentary says: They are an epitome 
of the bible, adapted to the purposes of devotion. 
St. Bassil says it is a complete body of divinity. The 
distinguished historian and commentator, Dr. Home, 
further says: "They treat occassionally of the crea- 
tion and formation of the world, the dispensation of 



58 PROHIBITION A FALLACY'. 

providence, and the economy of grace, the trans 
actions of patriarchs, the exodus of the children of 
Isreal, their journey through the wilderness, and set- 
tlement in Canaan, their law, priesthood, and ritual, 
the exploits of their great men wrought Through 
faith, the sufferings and victories of David, the peace- 
ful and happy reign of Solomon, the adrent of Mes- 
siah, his incarnation, birth, life, death, resurrection 
and ascension, kingdom and priesthood,, the effusion 
of the spirit, the conversion of the nations, the re- 
jection of the Jews, the establishment and of increase, 
and perpetuity of the christian church, the end of the 
world, general judgment, the condemnation of the 
wicked, and the final triumph of the righteous with 
their Lord and King. 

The character of such testimony as the Psalms 
presents ought to find acceptance in the credulity of 
the pulpit, pew, the choir, Women's Temperance 
Christian Association, prohibition, gospel temperance 
lecturers throughout Iowa, Kansas, Maine, and all 
Christendom. What then is recorded in the Psalms 
on the subject of intoxicants? The first mention of 
the inebriating extract of the grape can be found in 
4 ch, 11 v, which says: "Thou hast put gladness in 
in}' heart, more than in the time that their corn and 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 59 

wine increased." 60 eh, 3 v, tliese words occur: 
"Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonish- 
ment.'' 75, 8: "For in the land of the Lord there is a 

cup and the wine is red." 78 eh, 65 v: "Then the 
Lord awaked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man 
that shouteth by reason of wine*" 104 ch, 14-15 vs: 
"He (God) causeth the grass to grow for cattle, and 
herb for the service of man, and wine that inaketli 
glad the heart of man." 107 ch, 27 v: "They reel 
to and fro and stagger like a drunken man." 68 ch, 
12 v: "I was made the song of the drunkard." 

What does the pious, par-excellent prohibition 
philantropist have to say to the prevalence of the in- 
toxicating liquid in the days of the Psalmists, includ- 
ing David, Moses, Asaph, and others who praised 
God rapturously in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual 
songs at a period when intoxicating beverages were 
often indulged in to execss, with no effort for civil 
legislation to prevent it. 

The purity of the motive and the sincerity of 
the purpose of prohibitionists are not called in 
question. A higher authority than St. John and Gen. 
Fisk and prohibition temperance lecturers generally, 
and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with 
Miss Susan B. Anthony as its president added, must 



6G I ROHIBITION A FA LLACY. 

have something more than sentiment to enforce re- 
spect for their demand for statutory legislation to 

abate the existence of intoxicants. If the Bible and. 
;titutional law be wanting to authorize their de- 
mands, such demands are not entitled to respect. 



DAVID. 



David, the Hebrew bard, and as lie is spoken of 
by all the pulpit as tile sweet singer in Tsreal. David 
was not obnoxious to the moral, law, as an inebriate, 
nor was his frioral escutchepn tarnished with any of- 
fence of common grade. He enjoyed and deserved 
immense distinction as one that all Tsreal could 
trust. The signet of divine favor was upon his in- 
nocent brow as the award to virtuous fidelity in all 
contests where temptation offered attractions and ex- 
erted its force to swerve him from the rule of person- 
al and official fidelity to law. He was the gjand 
center of confidence, and doubt as to his departure 
from the white lines of any personal acts infracting 
the rights of any of his subjects as the chief official 
of the commonwealth of Isreal, was without a heart 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 61 

to conceive the possibility of such an apostacy. 
Nevertheless the time and circumstances to test his 
merit arose, and his susceptibility to show himself 
mortal appears in that he was under temptation, sus- 
ceptible of the sin of covetousness, which according 
to the teaching of Christ and his Apostles, is a great 
sin, though mild in form is disastrous and damnable 
in results. Well, David observed on a circumstan- 
tial occasion that a prominent subject of his reign 
possessed property of singular qualities of value to 
him personally, and he had a desire to possess it; 
and like many distinguished officials, well known to 
the reading public of the United States, he succumb- 
ed to the blandishments of the scene, and sacrificed 
all that was noble, and great and pure in his person- 
al and official character to the achievment of his base 
desire, and became an adulterer and murderer. An- 
gels fell, Adam and Eve kept not their first estate, 
and David descended, almost in a moment, tothepro- 
foundest depths of horrible depravity. Had this dis- 
tinguished servant of God, the pebble from whose 
sling in boyhood, at a time oflsreal's extremity, he 
sent with unerring aim a fatal touch to the brow of 
the insolent, God defying and Isreal hating Goliah of 
Gath, been the subject of a draft of intoxicants from 
a high license saloon or a pious drug store, his in- 



f! 2 prohibition a fallal 

fraction of personal and official purity would have 
been thundered and echoed in every prohibition lec- 
ture from the birth of its monstrosity to presenttime- 
The divine clemency that can possibly save a drunk- 
ard or saloon-keeper, or anyone else soever engaged 
in the liquor traffic from the perdition to whirl), in 
the judgment of prohibitionists, their depravity eon- 
signs them, was available in David's case: And a 
repentance unto life and a subsequent reformation 
from the hour the consuming tires of his guilt by the 
the sweet waters of forgiveness were quenched, to 
the hour of his farewell song, I am going home, his 
character and the greatness of his mind and. heart 
for the honor of God and the happiness of every man. 
woman and child stand out like the mountain — higher 
than the clouds, and as broad as the boundary linns 
of human existence, solid, and as imperishable as the 
granite foundation on which time was built. 






PROHIBITION A PALLAI V. 63 



FKOVERBS. 



lis authorship Is that of Solomon, who accord- 
Log to Joseph Benson, one of the clearest, most com- 
prehensive writers that has ever written a commen- 
tary on the Old and New testaments. Of Solomon 
this author says: "He was used by the Holy Ghost 
for making known the mind of God to us. He was 
endued, with an uncommon share of wisdom, and 
was a great author. He spoke of the cedars of Leba- 
non, unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, 
Pie spoke of beasts and of fowls and creeping things, 
and of fishes. His proverbs were the dictates of 
the spirit of God in Solomon. We have no book so 
serviceable for the right ordering of our conversa- 
tions as Solomon's proverbs, containing in a little 
compass a complete body of divine ethics, politics 
and economics, exposing every vice, recommending 
every virtue, and suggesting rules for the govern- 
ment of ourselves in every relation and condition, 
and every turn of conversation.'' Certainly such a 
character will command attention from prohibition- 



64 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

ists. Wliat then was the state of society in h 
eventful days asking of Isreal? 4ch, 17 v, speaking 
of the wicked, clays: "They drink the wine of vio- 
lence." Then there was no prohibition at that time, 

1,000 years before Christ. • Speaking of wisdom, he 
says, 9 ch. 2 v: "She hath killed her beasts; she 
hath mingled her wine] she also, hath furnished her 
table." 5 v: "Come eat of my bread ^ and drink of 
the wine which I have mingled" 

20 ch. 1 v. "Wine is a mocker and strong drink 
is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not 
wise." A celebrated commentator on these words 
says: "wine immoderately drank makes men mock- 
ers or scoffers at God and men." No excuse can be 
offered for excessive indulgence in "wine or strong 
drink," any more than to indulge the vitiated quali- 
ties of covetousness, adultery or fornication. But 
for any or all immoral habits, statutory enactment is 
not the remedy according to the condition of the 
body politic during the reign, of this chief officer of 
the commonwealth of Isreal — as king and successor of 
David and. the wisest man that ever lived. Yet, noth- 
ing is recorded in his administration remotely sug- 
gesting laws of force to prevent the possibility of the 
inexcusable and reprehensible use of u wine and 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 65 



strong drink" to excess. 3 ch, 9-10v: "Honor the 
Lord with thy substance, so shall thy barns be tilled 
with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new 
wine."' 23 ch, 20-21 v: "Be not among wine bibbers, 
among riotous eaters of flesh, for the drunkard and 
the glutton shall come to poverty." This is sound 
temperance talk but not prohibition. 

31 ch, 4-5 v: "It is not for Kings O Lemuel, it is 
not for kings to drink wine, nor for prince's strong 
drink, lest they drink and forget the law and per- 
vert the judgment of any of the afflicted. 

6 v: "Give strong drink unto him that is ready 
to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy 
hearts." 

7 v: "Let him drink and forget his poverty, and 
remember his misery no more," On these verses, 
our Commentator holds the following comment: "It 
is not for kings to drink wine — namely to excess, as 
the next verse explains it: lest they drink and for- 
get the law. The laws of God by which they are to 
govern themselves and their kingdoms, and pervert 
the judgment of the afflicted — -Which may be easily 
done by a drunken judge, because drunkenness de- 
prives a man of the use of his reason, by which 



(36 PKOIIIBITIO^ A FALLACY. 

alone men can distinguish between right and wrong, 
and withal stirs up those passions in him which in- 
cline both to precipitation and partiality. "Give 
strong drink unto him that is ready to perish' 5 — 
to faint — for such need a cordial. 

Let him drink and forget his poverty — for wine 
moderately used allays men's cares and fears and 
cheers the spirits." 

26ch. 9 v: "As a thorn goeth up into the hands 
of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools." 

It is obvious from the premises that political 
inhibition was unknown to Solomon. 



ECCLESXASTES- 



This book is next to Proverbs. Commentors 
say "it was designed to describe men's true happi- 
ness, and the way leading to it." The son of David 
King Solomon, was its author, therefore canonical. 
2 ch, 24v, says: "There is nothing better for a man 
than that he should eat and drink, and he should 
make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 67 

saw was from God." We presume the eating and 
drinking as to its nature was altogether a matter of 
taste and rational convictions, as to what he should 
eat and drink. This is the original platform on 
which the human race w^as commenced, and God has 
never ordered its amendment or repeal by human 
legislation. And the man or men, w^ho have forfeited 
and dishonored the high and divinely approved pre- 
ogative in the gift of his manhood as to become an 
habitual inebriate, should by statutory legislation 
be denied the right of franchise, as w^ell as punished 
for a voluntary disability and unfitness for the high 
relations to society, to law. and God; of honoring the 
preogative and obligation of an intelligent, sober, 
sovereign elector in the creation of laws for the gov- 
ernment of men. 

9th ch. 7 v. u Go thy way, eat thy bread with 
joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God 
now accepteth thy works." This text is only a crumb 
thrown out as a relish for the Prohibition Whale. 
10th ch. 17 v. "Blessed art thou, O land when thy 
king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due 
season, for strength and not for drunkenness!" 19 v. 
"A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh mer- 
ry, but money answereth all things." Here is the 
origin of trusts. 



68 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



3d ch. 18 v. "'And every. man should eat and 
drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour." 

5th ch., 18 v. "Behold it is good and comely 
for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all 
his labour all the days of his life which God giveth 
him; for it is his portion." Surely no such a law as 
modern prohibitionests seek had been enacted at this 
period. 

8th ch., 15 v. "Then I commanded mirth, be- 
cause a man hath no better thing under the the sun, 
than to eat and drink, and be merry; for that shall 
abide with him of his labour all the days of his life 
which God giveth him under the sun." 



The SONGS of SOLOMON. 



This book, commentators agree that, it is to des- 
cribe the mutual love, union and communion, which 
is between Christ and his church in the various con- 
ditions to which it is liable in this world. 

1 ch, 2 v: "For t]iy love is better than wine" 4 
v: "We will remember thy love more than icine." 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 69 



ISAIAH. 



One authorized to speak, "Thus saith the Lord." 
One of the most learned and reliable commentators 
of the Old and New Testament scriptures, has this to 
say of Isaiah. Prohibitionists, local optionists and 
total abstainers will accredit as acceptable author- 
ity. Our author says: "He was the prince of all 
the prophets. He is esteemed — and most justly the. 
most eloquent of all the prophets. In him we meet 
with all the purity of the Hebrew tongue. There are 
more quotations taken out of this book than out of 
all the other prophets." 

"St. Jerome says, "that the instructions they 
give in morality and divinity, are highly excellent. 
He describes the true nature of religion in so clear 
and so strong a manner that this book will be emi- 
nently useful to all pious minds in all ages." What 
then has this prophet to say on the question of intox- 
icants? Hear him, 1 eh, 22 v: "Thy silver is become 
dross, thy wine mixed with waiter." Why do not 
prohibitionists extend their ideas and action and un- 
dertake to limit — if they may not paralyze a monster, 



70 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

(trust combines) to which the liquor traffic is as mild 
as a midsummer sunshine compared to a cyclone 
against the interest of human want and necessity. 
What says the 23 v? — u Thy princes are rebellious 
and companions of tJrieves, every one loveth gifts and 
followeth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, 
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto 
them." Wonder if prohibitionists understand to 
what we allude in this quotation? Possibly they do! 
If not, read entire — the first chapter of Isaiah and 
they will be correctly advised. Then turn to the 24 
ch. and read it all. You will then admit that intox- 
icants existed in the days of Isaiah. In the 5 ch, 11 
v, you have these words: a Woe unto them that rise 
up early in the morning that they may follow strong 
drink, that continue until night, till wine inflame 
them." Such unfortunate men lived in the days of 
this prophet. The import of the term icoe is fright- 
ful. It carries with it — that there is nothing at the 
end of such a career but hell, with its adjudicated 
torments. Such total failures of the human race ac- 
cording to the "Book" are doomed to everlasting des- 
truction. 

The man or woman that cannot use intoxicants 
without reaching habitual drunkenness, should be 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 71 

pitied rather than denounced. Greater offenders 
than drunkards against God's moral law, and the 
interests of humanity, have been seen in the house 
of devotion. The money glutton; Judas, was one of 
the "chosen twelve" whose successors today, can be 
counted by the thousands. Yet the pulpit extends 
to their hypocritical lips the sacramental cup. Judas 
met the fate his perfidy provoked, and, the jury that 
lessens the penalty to the accused because he was 
drunk when he committed the offence, is a disgrace 
to the jury panel. God's law allows no such apolo- 
gy. "The wages of sin is death." And the preach- 
er and pew, that retains in membership the man or 
woman, known to be acceptable to the church only 
for their money contributions, are disgraceful and 
degrading to Christianity. Law, and not sentiment, 
is God's method of governing the world. 

5 ch, 12 v: "The harp and the viol, the tabor 
and pipe, and wine are in their feasts." 22 ch, 13 v. 
says, "Behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and 
killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. 

24 ch, 6-11 v: "The new wine mourneth, the vine 
languisheth, all the merry hearted do sigh. They 
shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall 
be bitter to them that drink it, there is a crying for 



72 PROHIBITION" A FALLACY. 

wine in the streets, all joy is darkened, the mirth 
of the land is gone." 

28 ch, 1-7 v: "Woe to the crown of pride, to the 
drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a 
fading flower which arie on the head of them which 
are overcome with wine" Can a prohibitionist ob- 
serve any difference in the conduct of men at that — 
and the present day? See 29 ch, 9 v, and it will be 
observed that something else than wine and strong 
drink make men drunk. 

55 ch, 1 v, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come 
ye, buy and eat, yea come buy wine and milk, with-* 
out money and without price. 

56 ch, 12 v, "Come ye, say they, I will fetch 
wine and fill ourselves with strong drink" 36 ch, 
17 v: "I will take you to a land of corn and wine\ a 
land of bread and vineyards" Wonder if the 
prophet meant that the land spoken of, was Iowa, 
Kansas or the sober drug store State of Maine? The 
president, male or female, of any duly organized 
"Womans Temperance Cliristian Union," can answer 
ac convenience. 

62 ch, 8 v, says: "The Lord has sworn by his 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 73 

right hand kv I will no more give my corn to be meat 
for thine enemies, and the sons of the strangers shall 
not drink thy wine, for which thou hast laboured." 

In the 65 ch, 8 v, you have this text: "Thus 
saith the Lord, as you have the new wine in the 
cluster, and one saith, destroy it not, for a blessing 
is it." Iowa christian prohibitionists can reflect on 
the import of this text at leisure. 

63 ch, 2 v, says "Wherefore art thou red in 
thine apparel, and thy garments like him that tread 
eth in the wine fat." Read the whole chapter. See 
21 eh, 5 v: "Prepare the table, watch in the watch- 
tower, eat, drink, arise, ye princes and annoint the 
shield, &c." We might quote this prophet further 
but it is not necessary. 



JEREMIAH. 



Is before the reader as the next prophet to 
Isaiah. The authority from which we quote says: 
u He was appointed to the prophetic office from his 



74 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

mother's womb, and began his ministry very young, 
629 years before Christ. He was ordained to proph- 
esy, see 1 ch, 5 v, riot only to the Jews but to all to 
whom God sent him. 

He uttered prophecies not only against God's 
chosen people, but against the Egyptians, the Phil- 
istines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Idumeans, 
the Syrians and especially against the Babylonians. 
He was sublime and elegant in his utterances. A 
man of unblemished character, piety and conscien- 
tious integrity, a warm lover of his country, whose 
miseries he pathetically deplores. And he chose 
rather to abide with them and undergo all hardships 
in their company, than separately to enjoy a state 
of ease and plenty which the favour of the King of 
Babylon would have secured to him." 

It is profoundly strange and mortifying, that 
the modern pulpit fails to utilize — and furnish to 
the Gentile pew, the facts of the unity of the human 
race — that God and his government has ever been 
the same — that human nature has never changed, 
that disobedience to God's moral law is no worse nor 
better now than in the days of the prophets. The 
modern practice of picking out one sin of a thousand 
and damning it to hell and excusing all the balance, 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 75 

is the reason why infidelity has grown fat and 
defiant. Such a condition of affairs appeared in the 
days of Christ and his Apostles, straining out gnats 
and swallowing camels — literally — straining at gates 
and swallowing saw-mills. St: Paul leveled the ar- 
tillery of Heaven against all such sleepers, when he 
said: "Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some 
have not the knowledge of God, this I speak to your 
shame. " But what was the state of sobriety in Jere- 
miah's day? His ministry continued for forty years. 

23 ch, 9 v, says: "All my bones shake, I am like 
a drunken man whom icine hath overcome." Then 
chey got drunk by taking too much, as is sometimes 
the case at Washington City, according to the 
papers. 

35 ch, 2 v: "G-o unto the house of the Rechabites 
and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one 
of the chambers and give them wine to drink." 

5 v: "And I set before them pots full of wine and 
cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wiiie." 

6 But they said, We will drink no wine; for 
Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded 
us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neitlier ye, nor 
your sons for ever: 



76 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



7 Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, 
nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days 
ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days 
in the land where ye be strangers. 

8 Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab 
the son of Kechab our father in all that he hath 
charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our 
wives, our sons, nor our daughters; 

9 Nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither 
have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: 

10 But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, 
and done according to all that Jonadab our father 
commanded us. 

11 But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar 
king of Babylon came up into the land, that we 
said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of 
the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army 
of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem. 

12 T" Then came the word of the Lord unto Jer- 
emiah, saying, 

13 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of 
Isreal; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabi- 
tants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction 
to hearken to my words? saith the Lord. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 77 

14 The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, 
that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are 
performed; for unto this day they drink none, but 
obey their father's commandment: notwithstanding I 
have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; 
but ye harkened not unto me. 

15 I have sent also unto you all my servants 
the prophets, rising up early and sending them, say- 
ing, Return ye now every man from his evil way, 
and amend your doings, and go not after other gods 
to serve them, and ye shall dw^ell in the land which 
I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have 
not inclined your ear, nor harkened unto me. 

16 Because the sons of Jonadab the son of 
Rechab have performed the commandment of their 
father, which he commanded them; but this people 
hath not hearkened unto me: 

17 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, 
the God of Isreal; Behold, I will bring upon Judah 
and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the 
evil that I have pronounced against them: because I 
have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; 
and I have called unto them; but they have not 
answered. 



78 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

18 T And Jeremiah said unto the house of the 
RechabiteS, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of 
Isreal; Because ye have obeyed the commandment 
of Jonadad your father, and kept all his precepts, 
and done according unto all that he hath commanded 
you; 

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the 
God of Isreal; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not 
want a man to stand before me for ever." 

From these utterances of the prophet who ex- 
pressed distinctly and fully the divine will, we 
observe here as every where in the Book of Inspira- 
tion, that divine and parental authority is not trans- 
ferred and surrendered to human legislation on ques- 
tions purely moral in their nature. The temptation 
to drink wine to drunkenness with all its attractive 
appliances was resisted because of parental author- 
ity, attended with God's approval and blessing. 

Only 588 years before Christ this wonderful re- 
prover of wickedness records in the 40 ch, 10 v, these 
words: "I will dwell at Mizpah, but ye, gather ye 
wine, and summer fruits, and oil and put them in 
your vessels and dwell in your cities that ye have 
taken." 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 79 



48 oh, 33 v: "And joy and gladness is taken 
from the plentiful field and from the land of Moab, 
and I will have caused wine to fail from the wine 
presses. None shall tread with shouting. In all 
this God is in controversy with wrong doers, then as 
in the days of Christ. But no prohibition!!! 

5 ch. 7 v., says "Babylon has been a golden cup 
in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken; 
nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations 
are mad." Prohibitionists of every grade and type, 
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union especial- 
ly, are left to analyze the import of this text. If all 
such would read the scriptures and get information 
as to God's method of governing this world, they 
would cease to appear as a fading star or a frosted 
leaf. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowl- 
edge" is an accusation against presumption and igno- 
rance. 

We omitted by accident our recital from 31 ch. 
12 v. which reads: "Therefore they shall come and 
sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to 
the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, 
and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the 
herd, and their souls shall be as a watered garden; 
and they shall not sorrow any more at all." Politi- 



80 pkohibitio:n a fallacy. 

cal depravity and mercenary aspirations, are plainly 
seen between the lines in all prohibition movements. 
The idea, the fact, that any one, male or feme 
nine should have to come to Jerseyville, or any other 
locality of its pretentions, intelligence, morality, and 
Christianity, to advance its civilization, with a har- 
rangue on prohibition-temperance, is the acme of re- 
diculousness. The ne plus ultra of superciliousness. 
And to the extent such agencies are recognized as a 
necessity to their civil, moral and religious welfare, 
is but an advertisement of the idiocy of the agent 
coming, the agency sending, or the imbeciles accepting 
and passing around the hat to meet the expense of 
their service. 

Some birds fail to reach the bush or perch of 
their roost until nightfall darkens the passage of 
their flight on the home stretch. So with at least 
ninety-nine of every one hundred found in the pro- 
hibition lecture field, like "Diana of the Ephesians" 
it is the source of the necessary supplies to keep 
their ark above the waves of actual want; hence any 
thing that will pay! And as a sentimental, not a 
Bible Christianity invites their approach, as author- 
ized by prohibitionists, local optionists and total ab- 
stainers. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 81 



LAMENTATIONS. 



Jere miali is the author of this book. 

2 ch, 12 v: "They say unto their mothers, where 
is corn and wine?" 1 ch, 15 v: "The Lord hath trod- 
den the Virgin, the daughter of Juclah as in a wine 
press." 

The next prophet is 



EZEKIEL. 



Of this eminently distinguished prophet, one of 
the four greater prophets, our commentator says: 
u His genius led him to amplification, like that of 
Ovid, Lucan and Juvenal, among the Roman poets: 
though occasionally he shows himself capable of the 
austere and concise manner of which the 7 ch. is a 



82 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

remarkable instance. But the divine spirit did not 
orer rule the natural bent of his mind. Variety is 
thus produced in the sacred writings. Nahum 
sounds the trupet of war, Hosea is- sententious, 
Isaiah sublime, Jeremiah pathetic, Ezekiel copious. 

What of the liquor traffic and prohibition dur- 
ing the period he "spake as God commanded him?" 
Wine was then in use as it is to-day. 27 ch, 18 v. 
says: "Damascus w x as thy merchant in the multitude 
of the wares of thy making for the multitude of all 
riches in the wine of Helbon and white wool." 

44 ch, 21 v, you read: "Neither shall any priest 
drink wine when they enter into the inner court." 
In these quotations it is observed that wine was an 
item of merchandise, but its use denied to the 
priests when serving officially in the inner court. 



DANIEL 



Comes next. The reputation of this prophet is 
so well known by the ministry and all church peo- 
ple that he needs no commendation from any com- 
mentator to command the confidence of any one as 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 83 

to liis pretensions as a prophet. 1 ch, 5 v, says: 
"And the king appointed them a daily provision of 
the king's meal, and of the wine which he clrcmk" 
8 v: kk But Daniel would not defile himself with the 
portion of tlie king's meat nor with the wine which 
he drank." It appears that in this case that other 
motive than the offer of wine was rejected. He re- 
fused to accept the king's meat also. 

In the 10 ch, 2-3 v, are these remarkable facts: 
"In those days; I, Daniel, was mourning three full 
weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh 
nor loine in my mouth, &c." The wine, the bread 
and the llesh are equally the subject of his self de- 
nial during his three weeks fast. And it is abso- 
lutely certain that this illustrious prophet had not 
conceived the sublime idea of a prohibitory temper- 
ance law at that time. Daniel was not merely .a 
historian but Jehovah's inspired prophet, whose 
teachings on moral and religious questions are as 
authorative to-day as when first uttered. 

The 9 ch, 2-4 v show the existence of wine and 
winepresses. 14 ch, 7 v. says: "They that dwell 
under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as 
the corn and grow as the vine, the scent thereof shall 
be as the cedar of Lebanon." In the 3 ch, 1 v: a Hag- 
gons of wine" are spoken of. 



84 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



HOSEA 



Stands accredited with, authority to say, "Thus 
saith the Lord." 

4 

2 eh, 8 v, says; "For she did not know that I 
gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her 
silver and gold which they prepared for Baal. 9 v: 
''Therefore will I return and take away in the time 
thereof, and my wine in the season thereof." Other 
allusions to wine in this chapter and other matters 
that have their reproving application to the present 
time as when they first thundered in the ears of 
apostacy. Read it! 

Read the 4 ch, and it will he perceived that 
some other violations of God's moral laws are more 
common at the present day than the offence of in- 
toxication from the excessive use of wine or strong 
drink. Yet the pulpit and moral lecturers, wdiether 
men or women on these violations of divine, and 
even civil laws, are as still as tomb-stones and as 
silent as shadows. 



PROHIBITION" A FALLACY. 85 

7 ch, 5 v: "In the day of our King the princes 
have made him sick with bottles of wine." Has there 
nothing of this kind of bribery been going on during 
the 19 th century in the United States? 



JOEL. 



Is in the group of what are considered the lesser 
prophets, to whom the "word of the Lord came" 800 
years before Christ. 

Reliable data says of him: "He is elegant, per- 
spicuous, copious and fluent, sublime, animated and 
energetic. He foretells the plentiful effusions of the 
Holy Spirit in the days of Christ." On the question 
of intoxicants, he has this to say, 1 ch, 5 v: "Awake 
ye drunkards and weep; and 7wwl all ye drinkers of 
'wine, because of the new wine, because it is cut off 
from your mouth." No prohibition then, but tem- 
perance strongly demanded, and drunkenness 
severely denounced. 

10 v: "The land mourneth, the corn is wasted, 
the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth." 11 v: 



86 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



"Be ye ashamed ye husbandmen; howl ye vine 
dressers, for the wheat and the barley; for the har- 
vest of the held is perished; the vine is dried up and 
the fig tree languisheth, the pomegranate' tree, even 
all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is 
withered away from the sons of men. Gird your- 
selves ye priests and lament, and howl ye ministers 
of the altar; come, lie all night in sack cloth ye min- 
isters of my God, for the meat offering and the drink 
offering is withholden from the house ot your God." 

In this portrait the exact features are seen — in 
the hypocritical pretensions of Iowa, Kansas and 
Maine. Instead of giving the people the u Gospel 
that God preached to Abraham,'- the cowardly mer- 
cenary pulpit exponents, so far as prohibition senti- 
ments control it, wish state and national legislation 
to effect what the Great God commands them to de- 
mand, by authority of his unrepealable statutes. 

In the 3 ch, 3 v, these wonderful words occur: 
"And they have cast lots for my people and given a 
boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine that they 
might drink." See 18 v. 2 ch, 19 v: W4 Yea the Lord 
will answer and say unto his people, I will send you 
corn and wine, &c. 24 v: "And the floors shall be 
full of wheat and the fats shall overflow with wine 
and oil." 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 87 



AMOS. 



Is the next to Joel, 787 years before Christ. His 
pedigree is superb. 

2 ch, 8 v: "They drink the wine of the con- 
demned in the house of their God." 12 v: ; 'But ye 
give the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded 
the prophets saying prophecy not." Read the 6 ch., 
entire. 

The 9 ch, 14 v, has these words: "And I will 
bring again the captivity of my people Isreal and 
they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, 
and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine 
thereof." 



MICAH. 



His prophecy was brief, 730 years before Christ : % 

"If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do 
lie, saying. I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of 



88 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

strong drink lie shall never be the prophet of this 
people." 6 ch, 15 v: "Thou shalt not drink wine." 
Wine then was in use but disallowed to a prophet. 



HABAKKUK. 



2 ch, 5 v: "Yea also he transgresseth by wine, 1 " 
626 years before Christ. 



ZEPHANIAH 



Is next, 626 years before Christ. 1 ch, 13 v: 
"Therefore &c, they shall plant vineyards but not 
drink the wine thereof." 



HAGAL 



See 1 ch, 11 v. "Where a number of items &c are 
forbidden, wine one of them. The same is true of 



the 2 ch, 12 v. 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 89 



ZECHARIAH. 



See 9 ch, 15 v, also 17 v, which says: "Corn 
shall make tlie young man cheerful and new wine 
the maidens." 10 ch, 7 v: '-And they of Ephraim 
shall be like a mighty man and their hearts shall re- 
joice as through wine." 



MALACHL 



397 years before Christ has these words in 3 ch, 
11 v: "And I will rebuke the deyourier for your 
sakes and he shall not destroy the fruit of your 
grounds uor your yines cast their fruit before the 
time." 



90 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



NEW TESTAMENT, 



It is an anomalous fact how little importance 
attaches to the inspired teachings of the Old Testa- 
ment scriptures, with many denominations profess- 
ing to teach Christianity. Some go so far as to set 
aside the "Old Book" entirely, as of no importance 
to a correct understanding as to what is necessaiy to 
believe and to do in order to he a christian. Yet the 
New Testament never changed the condition of a sin- 
ner's salvation from the garden of the parentage of 
the human race; to Patmos, where John saw the 
hundred and forty-four thousand and the general 
assembly and church of the first born and an innum- 
erable company of Angels. Directly to the eye of 
every one concerned on the subject of salvation the 
New Testament, John 5 ch, 39 v, says: "Search the 
scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life 
and they are they that testify of ME!! Acts, 17 ch, 
11 v, says: "These received the word, with all readi- 
ness of mind and searched the scriptures daily 



IiIBITIOX A FALLACY. 91 



whether these things were so." St. Paul preached 
that God foreseeing, he would justify the heathen 
(all the human race to the end of the world not line- 
al lv descended from Ja,cob) — -"preached the gospel 
before to Abraham." Here we have it that God, 
Christianity, the Gospel of God and the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ have ever been the same. And God's 
method of governing the world admits of no improve- 
ment; that he would justify the heathen (Gentiles) 
through faith, "preached the gospel before to Abra- 
ham, saying, &c. What did he say to Abraham? 
Well, he said he is the father of every one that be- 
lieves in Christ as the Savior, unto justification, the 
forgiveness of his sins. Then, what does the New 
Testament teach on the subject of Intoxicants. Ex- 
actly what has been taught from Lot and Noah to 
the days of John the Baptist; thence to the closing 
scene upon Patinos. The use of intoxicants has 
never been prevented by divine enactment. But 
Temperance demanded and drunkenness forbidden. 
But it is a fact that the Old and New Testament 
scriptures, thunder denunciations against offences 
and offenders, against the laws of morality and 
Christianity, a thousand fold more dishonoring to 
God. and the best interest of mankind than drunken- 



92 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



ness of any degree and limit of continuance. 

The great apostle Paul, Acts, 24 ch, 25 v, "rea- 
soned before Felix, of righteousness, Temperance 
and a judgment to come." But it is not to be found, 
that he ever, nearly or remotely, clearly or obscurely 
reasoned in favor of a prohibitory local option or 
total abstinence civil statutes to prevent the existence 
of intoxicants. He reasoned to the Ephesians, 5 ch, 
18 v. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, 
that is, an excessive use of wine produces drunken- 
ness which the apostle forbids. That he did not 
mean prohibition or total abstinence is clear, from 
his advice to his son, Timothy, 5 ch, 23 v, which 
reads: "Drink no longer water but use a little wine 
for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. 51 
See 3 ch, 8 v, which says: "Likewise must the dea- 
cons be grave not double tongued, not given to much 
wine, not greedy of filthy lucre." Hear this authori- 
ty once more, 1st Timothy, 3 ch, 2 v: "A bishop 
then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, 
vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospital- 
ity, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not 
greedy of filthy lucre, patient, not a brawler; not 
covetous." See 1st Thessalonians, 5 ch, 7 v: "They 
that be drunken are drunken in the night, but let us 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 93 

who are of the day be SOBER." Here is gospel 
temperance, but no nonsensical prohibition foolish- 
ness. Once more this blazing star of inspiration 
speaks, says to Titus, 1 ch, 7 v: "For a Bishop must 
be blameless, as the steward of God. Not self- 
willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, not given 
to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of 
good men, sober, just, holy, Temperate." We next 
direct attention to the wholesouled 



APOSTLE PETER. 



Hear him, 4 ch, 3 v: "For the time past of our 
life, may suffice us to have wrought the will of the 
Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, 
excess of wike, reveling, banqueting and abominable 
idolatries." To the eye of a prohibitionist, whether 
male or female, " Gospel temperance" lecturers, noth- 
ing in this catalogue of immoralities has ever been 
observed except the "excess of wine." At any rate 
they never mention them in their temperance ha- 
rangues. Observe that the offence was not the use 
of wine but its excessive use. Does a prohibitionist 



94 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

know the difference between the rational use of food 
and eating to gluttony? It might be in order for the 
immense Talmage, of Brooklyn Tabernacle notority, 
to furnish as a benefit of moral ideas to- his world 
wide hearers, a sermon on what the Apostle Peter 
meant by the terms in this text, u lasciviousness, 
lusts, reveling, banqueting and abominable idola- 
tries." His sentiments (and they have been but 
only Ids sentiments) as the teachings of Christianity are 
that "whoever uses swine meat regularly becomes 
polluted in soul and diseased in body," and gives as 
'proof of the truth of this assumption that ever since 
the devils that possessed two of the Gergesenes were 
driven out of them by Christ and went into a herd of 
many swine that ran violently down a steep place 
into the sea and perished." Mat. 8 ch, 22 v: "the 
devil has been in the swine" (hogs). The chances 
are that Dr. Talmage in this conclusion is about as 
near the truth of gospel teachings, as he has been 
on the subject of "gospel prohibition temperance." 
We will mention another instance of the incoher- 
ency and rhapsodical nonsense of this distinguished 
sentimentalist in substituting his sentimental vagar- 
ies for gospel truth; and doubtless presumes that 
whatever he says or wTites will find acceptance and 
approval as gospel truth and semi-divine. This dis- 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 95 



tinguished pulpiteer lias recently been to Athens 
and says lie preached on. Mars Hill. Alludes to the 
fact of St. Paul preaching on Mars HilL I have 
read Dr. Talmage's sermon and thought singular 
that his text was not any of the utterances of St 
Paul on that occasion. His sermon was the tamest 
I had ever read from his imaginative pen. We have 
often read St. Paul's sermon on Mars Hill which, un- 
der the circumstances of its delivery is the grandest, 
the most heroic, manly, historical, logical and the- 
ological that can be found in any language of the 
world. If Dr. Talmage mentioned the type of his 
audience we do not have it in mind at this time. 
But the type of St. Paul's auditors was the most ex- 
traordinary ever addressed by any minister of the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Athens was a seminary of 
philosophers whose object was to oppose belief in 
religion. Paul was not there as a criminal, but was 
invited by the Areophagite— the Supreme Court of 
twelve Judges — men of the most distinguished fami- 
lies in Athens. At this audience were gathered sen- 
ators, philosophers, rhetoricians, statesmen, &c, &c. 
Paul was a man without fustian or foolishness in his 
talk, and in one short sermon triumphantly estab- 
lished the truth of Christianity at the most learned, 



96 PKOHIBITIO^ A FALLACY. 

talented, wealthy and idolatrous communities then 
existing. With reference to this occasion Dr. Tal- 
mage in his late visit to Athens, says: "Paul turned 
his eye toward Corinth after he left the mobocracy 
of Athens." No mob occurred during Paul's preach- 
ing, or stay at Athens. There is no account of such 
an event in the Acts of the Apostles. Dr. Talmage 
further says in his late book from "MANGER TO 
THRONE," page 22.- "No wonder that meeting 
broke up in a riot, and that Paul had to clear out, 
and go to Corinth, from which we came day before 
yesterday. It was not yesterday afternoon, so much 
that the wind fluttered the leaves of my Bible, as I 
was speaking about that address of Paul on Mars 
Hill, as it was emotion that shook the book when 
that apostolic theme rose before my imagination. I 
obtained a block of stone from Mars Hill to be sent 
to Brooklyn for the pulpit-table, in our new church, 
now building. But has this Paul nothing to do with 
the blest One, whose life I am trying to write? Yes, 
Paul was Jesus Christ's man. Mars Hill shall be to 
us only a stepping stone to Golgotha." Our com- 
ment on the above is this, that there is not in the 
realm of ideas, nor labyrinth of words, the equal of 
the nonsensicle twaddle, incoherency of parts, and 
tumblement and jumblement of subjects as are con- 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 97 

tained ill the paragraph quoted: In self-sufficiency, 
self-importance, and self-gloriiication, it transcends 
the vanity -bloated, self-appointed comforters that 
visited the illustrious man of Us, "whose name was 
Job\" whose sympathetic emotions were fully reliev- 
ed in telling the distressed patriarch that they only 
were left to tell him, that every sheep that he had 
sheared, and every camel that bore a burden, every 
ox that pulled with a yoke, and every species of his 
stock, had been either killed or stolen; and finally 
one of his comforters came, and said he only had es- 
caped a terrible cyclone that had blown down their 
houses and killed all his children. See Job, 1st ch. 
And but for Dr. Talmage, the commonwealth of Israel 
and all Christendom, could have ever known that St. 
Paul's preaching at Athens, "broke up in a riot," 
and that "Paul had to clear ottt and go to Corinth" 
for the safety of his life, we presume. 

We challenge the pulpit of the world to find any- 
thing in that Apostle's preaching to support such a 
monstrous reminiscense. Paul's preaching at Mars 
Hill, resulted, from one sermon, in a genuine revival 
of gospel Christianity; insomuch he was invited to 
return. Among his converts was Dyonisius the Ar- 
eophagite — one of the twelve Judges of Athens Su- 



98 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

preme Court; and Damaris, a woman of great dis- 
tinction; but not reported as the president of the 
Woman's Christian Prohibition Temperance Union; 
and many others, but none of them prohibitionists. 

However nearly alike as expounders of Gospel 
Truth, Dr. Talmage and St. Paul may be, there is 
this distinct difference, Dr. Talmage is a prohibi- 
tionists, St. Paul w-as not. Possibly, some may 
think Dr. Talmage understands the science and phi- 
losophy of Christianity better than the hero of 
Athens — St. Paul — did. u To your own master you 
stand or fall." Another distinct difference is mani- 
fest: — St. Paul advertised the greatness of God, and 
Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. Dr. Tal- 
mage advertises the greatness of the Brooklyn Tab- 
ernacle, of which he is the supreme head. 

As to Dr. Talmage "trying to write the life of 
the Blest One." We suggest such a "life" would be 
a work of supererogation. The life of Christ has al- 
ready been written with a perspicuity and by author- 
ity that admits of no duplication, diminution or ad- 
dition. One New Testament is enough ! ! ! The am- 
bition and vanity to prompt such a purpose would 
have a larger remuneration, financially, to its author 
and publisher than any moral and spiritual benefit 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 99 

to be derived by tlie reader to whom it would be ded- 
icated. After all, it may have been the wind that 
rustled the leaves of the Bible and not his emotional 
agitation. In this, however, the Dr. shall have the 
benefit of the doubt. 

What is meant by "Mars Hill shall be our step- 
ping stone to Golgotha," remains to be explained in 
Dr. Talmage's "Life of the Blest One." 

We next invite attention to the existence and 
use of intoxicants during the life of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. In Mathew 26 ch, 26-29 v, inclusive is the 
proof of what we affirm: "And as they were eating, 
Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and 
gave it to the disciples, and said, take, eat, this is 
my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks, 
and gave it to them, saying Drink, ye, all of it; for 
this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed 
for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto 
you I will not drinJc henceforth of this fruit of the 
wine until that day when I drink it new with you in 
my father's kingdom." It was at the supper table 
that the wine was used as well as the bread, and 
thanks were offered to the Great God for the use of 
the wine by Christ himself, and then to say that 
Jesus Christ was a total abstainer, a local optionist 



100 PROHIBITION- A FALLACY. 

or prohibitionist, renders, it beyond comprehension 
why he should have adopted wine for the purpose of 
sacramental remembrance of his atoneing death. 

Next we notice Luke, 5 ch, 37, 38 and 39 v, said 
Christ: "No man putteth new wine into old bottles, 
else the new wine will burst the bottles and be 
spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine 
must be put into new bottles and both are preserved. 
No man also having drunk old wine straight way 
desireth new, for he saith the old is better" But 
why is it better? For no other reason than one is fit 
to drink with a relishable appreciation from the 
stimulation. It produces action to the mind and 
muscle, and the other is not, any more than a green 
grape is not relishable to the appetite which the ripe 
grape supplies. But Christ makes the distinction 
in favor of the use of the old wine. 

Look at the following, Luke 7 ch, 33-34 v: "For 
John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor 
drinking wine; and ye say he hath a devil. The son 
of man is come, eating and drinking, and ye say, 
behold a gluttonous man and a wine bibber." Was 
there any total abstinence, local option or prohibi- 
tion in the solid and unsullied character of Jesus 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 101 

Christ? Neither!! Never. As all the readers of 
this book are to a greater or less extent readers of 
the New Testament, we need only to refer to a num- 
ber of passages, where the subject of wine is treated 
without quoting the text in full. See Mathew 9 eh, 
17 v. Here you have Christ's argument about new 
wine and old bottles. See 11 ch, 10-19 v. In 21 ch, 
33 v, &c, is given the history of a householder and 
his vineyard and his wine press, &c, See 24 ch, 38- 
49 v. 



MARK. 



See 2 ch, 22 v. 12 ch, 1 v. 14 ch, 23-25 v. 15 
ch, 23 v. 



LUKE. 

1 ch, 15 v, says "He shall be great in the sight 
of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong 
drink." Then wine and strong drink did exist at 
the birth and during the life of the Lord Jesus. 5 ch, 



102 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 

30-39 v, is a slam against presumptious prohibition. 
See 7 ch, 33 ▼, In 10 cli, 33- 34 v, Christ gives the 
account of the good Samaritan, whose conduct He 
approved because he had bound up his wounds, "in 
oil and icine" 12 ch, 45 v, 22 ch, 18-30 v, 18 v says: 
"I will not drink of the fruit of the wine until the 
kingdom of God shall come." Read it all. 



JOHN, 

The 4th Evangelist forever settles the question as 
to Christ's sentiments on the use of wine. 2 ch, 1-9 
v, gives the marriage in Cana of Galilee. His moth- 
er and his disciples were present. The governor of 
the feast was present and a great many besides. 
Wine was a cardinal element in this festivity, and 
become exhausted. Christ produced a new and an 
abundant supply of better wine than had been used 
on that occasion. The reader that will turn to the 
2 ch. of John and read it, will never again question 
the fact that intoxicating wine was produced at that 
wedding, but no report of anyone " tarrying too long" 
at the inebriating bowl. Allusion to this occasion is 
found 4 ch, 46 v: "So Jesus came again into Cana of 



PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 103 

4 

Galilee where He made the water wine." Allusion 
to Peter on the day of penticost in Acts has already 
been made. Where he defended his rapturous con- 
verts against the charge of being drunk. From this 
event it cannot be disputed that the means to pro- 
duce intoxication did actually exist. Hence there 
was then no law of prohibition? 



SUPPLEMENTARY. 



By accident the following text was lost from its 
proper place in the recitations from the book of 



PROVERBS, 



23 ch, 29-32 v: "Who hath woe? Who hath sor- 
row? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? 
Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath red- 
ness of eyes?" The answer, 30 v, says: "They that 



104 PROHIBITION A FALLACY. 



tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed 
wine. 31 v: Look not upon the wine when it is red, 
when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth 
itself aright. 32 v: At last it biteth like a serpent, 
and stingeth like an adder." While no prohibition 
lecturer has failed to quote the above to support 
prohibition, there is no prohibition in it, none what 
ever. It is strictly a temperanc lecture of Solomon 
to his subjects. Tarrying long at the wine and 
seeking mixed wine and looking upon or using the 
wine when it is red, &c, which is forbidden, is where 
the woe, and the sorrow, the babbling, redness of eyes 
and contentions come from, and not from the rational 
use of wine. At all events this was no statutorv 
prohibition. Moreover how many thousands of gor- 
geously furnished parlors with, glittering chandeliers 
have witnessed debauches, and disaster to character 
and happiness for life, a result of the parties "tarry- 
ing" long after they should have been in the quiet 
embraces of morpheus in their apartments at their 
respected homesteads. While prohibitionists are 
seeking to destroy the existence of saloons they 
should have an eye to abate some of the abuses of 
parlors. 



